It's an hour till your party at which a mix of close friends and career fiends will attend. Your bachelor pad has been suitably dimmed to a warm but discreet level. The linen sofas have been plumped up, and the eclectic range of food and wine has been cleverly laid out. The only thing that could go wrong is a disastrous choice of background music. Enya is a no-no and the Chemical Brothers are too damn imposing. May I suggest the new glorious Fantastic Plastic Machine album, Luxury, the case even sits well on a minimalist coffee table for perusal.

From the minute the opening track Theme of Luxury bursts on you know that you are in safe hands. If this would not energise the dullest of accountants I would eat my bowler hat. The cover of the Eurythmics There Must be an Angel is a nine-minute feast for the ears. The dream like quality of this version, altogether softer but with a camouflaged dance beat to move it along, may be the most relaxing piece that you will hear this year. Honolulu, Calcutta is a woman's fantasy about infidelity, dashed at the waking moment. Again a ride through the unconscious.

The pace then moves on into quicker tempos and beats in the adictively foot bobbing Electric Lady Land and You Must Learn All Night Long, and even Clapton's Sunshine of my Love riff makes an appearance in The Girl Next Green Door. These are songs ready to illuminate even the highest paid lawyer's grey cheeks, tunes fit for the King of Disco's floor.

These are the high points, and there are a couple of tracks such as Lotto (bizarrely in German) and Satellite Beats which don't quite match up to the rest of Tomoyuki Tanaka's LP, and you will rarely listen to the whole album in one sitting. However, the high points make up for the lows.

This is French europop panache, but still very Japanese. This certainly expands upon the eponymous first album and then takes that sound to another level. More Quail Pate anyone, with some Ciccenti wine. Oh yes please.

8/10 Mike Wogan

Album Review - Fantastic Plastic Machine - The Fantastic Plastic Machine

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