WRANGLER
A SITUATION
BELLA UNION
★★★
Synths have always been useful tools for expressing fears of dystopia, as Wrangler know. Oddly, however, despite its inspiration, their third album is also their most upbeat, if only relatively speaking. Certainly, Machines Designed To Eat You Up sounds bubbly, but this masks distressing themes of electronic surveillance, while the title track’s a menacing techno-influenced banger and Mess pops and peeps like a dysfunctional robot. Talking of which, Rhizomatic sounds like Kraftwerk gone beserk, which surely heralds the world’s end.