Not since Mike Oldfield first hit the music scene with his tubular appendages have I felt so much that a recently launched electronic pop band was harking back to a period some years older than the rest of its rivals for dance floor supremacy. Actually, I do not even regard ‘In The Atmosphere’ as an album of electronica, although that is assuredly what it is. Had Tony Banks not been so closely linked to Genesis and his classical keyboards background, I would reckon that he would have headed in this same direction.

Carlisle is not the first place you might consider for new-wave electronic rock (if I must give it a tag), yet it was in that Cumbrian capital that Mark Baker (vocals, writer and arranger), Gary Little (synths and electronica, writer and arranger), Gareth Milburn (bass.synths) and Lee Smith (guitar/backing vocals) formed only in February 2008 to create Burn The Negative. Interestingly, their paths may have crossed in the past but as Mark and Gary had worked together for the best part of a decade, as DJ/Producers, while Gareth and Lee played in several indie bands, there was an inevitability to their ultimate coming together and formulating the wonderfully mature and wholesome sound with which they have succeeded in this debut album. It has a tremendous, measured, fully-formed feel to it that younger and more reactive artists might overlook in their rush for fame.

Another intriguing facet is that the ‘new’ band recorded its album in two locations, the first at its local studio in the north-west of England, while it was balanced and some tracks were recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London and, so I gather, the band fell in love, as do so many artistes, with that charismatic place. The band cites its influences as 1980s art-rockers, Japan, that band’s lead singer, David Sylvian, Sonic Youth, Nine-Inch Nails and even Gary Numan, all of whom are regarded as having played some role in the development of BtN’s first-class sound. If the band’s follow-up album is as good as this, its 13-track debut, then I think it will be a band of which we shall be hearing a lot more in the future. This is good quality material, of that make no mistake.