Vince Clarke and Paul Hartnoll - 2Square

The Guardian 60

(VeryRecords)

As (early) Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Erasure electro tunesmith and rave-era giant with Orbital, respectively, Vince Clarke and Paul Hartnoll have made 50 years of electronic music between them. However, 2Square sees them bonding primarily as fathers. Hartnoll wryly describes their politely bleeping grooves as “home house” – dance music for living-room use, but with an old raver’s eye on “helping each other on to the dance floor to dance as only dads can”. It certainly sounds as if they had fun making this tuneful mash-up of Orbital’s trancey techno and Clarke’s trademark melodies. Hurtling electro pop meshes into slower, melodic adventures; vocals appear mostly appear as cut-up snippets, although All Out employs funk/soul singer Kenya Hall for a euphoric banger that would work in the house or out. Perhaps the bleepy, beaty and stupidly catchy Zombie Blip – a sort of alternative Doctor Who theme – is most likely to lead to outbreaks of dangerous dad dancing.