The World of Tomorrow

If you believe everything written about electronica, you'd think it traced its ancestry directly to Kraftwerk. But there was a time during the latter half of the '70s when another branch grew from the tree--electronic pop music. Think Gary Numan, Yazoo, and the wondrous M, whose "Pop Muzik" was--and still is--a sublime single. Komputer, at least, haven't forgotten those halcyon days. In fact, they're the basis of this entire album which wears pop music unashamedly on its sleeve, mixing it at times with the instrumental romanticism of Orbital ("Looking Down on London"), and nods toward other movements, present and past, in the genre. But mostly, this is about some songs, glorious like "Valentina" or downright silly (like "Bill Gates"). The World of Tomorrow is more like yesterday's world today, but still thoroughly entertaining.