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Plugs - Imaginary Friend

Groove-hungry UK four-piece Plugs made friends all over with the their Spring 2008 debut That Number, clinching Hottest Record in the World on Zane Lowe, single of the week accolades on 6 Music and Radio 2, and love pouring forth everywhere from NME to MTV, to various corners of the blogosphere. You can still hear its slo-mo, leftfield thump on more adventurous dancefloors.

In the four months since, main man Morgan Q has found time away from his globe trotting day job to help polish off this, the worthy follow up. Imaginary Friend is an elegantly crafted tale of bitterness and payback laid over wonky technoid riffs and skuzzy basslines, working around jacking rhythms and Chi Town snares, all building to a portentous and stirring finale. We're not sure if it's a club track or just a classy little song with a sparky backing, but then that's Plugs all over.

B side, Real Celebrities takes a more Motorik approach to the rhythm section, but delivers an equally satisfying song and more of the kind of punchy hooks the band are in danger getting a reputation for.

Taking things off on a tangent, hot new Lex signings, Dissident veterans, and college sparring partners, Heartbreak take another Plugs song Bodyheat off for a little trip around central Italy circa 1983, and return with a neat Italo-Electro version of the Spacer Woman kind.

With a handful of Plugs remixes of other new acts due (We Have Band / Post War Years) and a break in the clouds seeing them gigging again, Plugs look like ending 2008 with the same kind of momentum they started it.

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