V.B.O.

Nostalgia is a peculiar thing. Over the last few years, the '80s revivalism that occasionally rears its head through contemporary pop music has become almost ubiquitous in mainstream culture. It is almost impossible to switch on the radio without hearing some modern artist evoking the tinny synthesizers and over-produced bombast of that hallowed decade. And even though THE WKND's "Blinding Lights" came out seven years ago, the pop mainstream has continued to plunder the same sounds, soundtracks and pioneering technology that separated the '80s from the ostensibly organic and avowedly analogue '70s. The same is true of the metal world, albeit to a much lesser extent. V.B.O. are a new project from WIND ROSE vocalist Francesco Cavalieri and his fellow countryman, electronic artist Simone Giusti. Adorned with the gaudy, aspirational aesthetic that turned "Miami Vice" into such a cultural benchmark, "Vice Business Only" is the duo's first attempt to send listeners howling back to a time when the closest thing we had to easily accessed internet porn was repeated plays for ROBERT PALMER's "Addicted To Love" video on MTV.

In stylistic terms, we have been here before, and recently too. In purely songwriting terms, V.B.O. drink from the same inexhaustible well of '80s pop and AOR tropes that THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA have plundered so successfully in a rock context. Here, however, the musical elements are almost entirely electronic in conception and execution, with guitars processed to sound like the grinding doors of a space shuttle, and beats that would make a robot blush for being too inauthentic. Remarkably, all this retro detail collides on some genuinely great songs, with Cavalieri's formidable baritone providing the necessary human component. With shades of everything from TEARS TO FEARS to MR. MISTER, "Vice Business Only" is a treasure trove for those who actually remember the original era, and a neat introduction to the '80s for everyone else.

It starts with a retooled rendition of "Vesti la Giubba": an aria from Leoncavallo's 1892 opera Pagliacci, with electronic gremlins creeping into the orchestral squall to set the scene. Thereafter, "Vice Business Only" presents a stream of absurdly catchy and imaginative pop bangers. "Bring On The Fire" is euphoric, upbeat and irrepressibly funky; "Waiting for the Dawn" is gritty, laced with EDM squiggles, and subtly cinematic, with askance salutes to DEPECHE MODE factored in. "Lovers on the Run" picks up the pace and weaves some techno intensity into its lovelorn ruminations and downbeat, radio-rock pulse. In contrast, "Shadow of Your Kiss" is an explosive, electro-pop riot that sounds both strongly reminiscent of late '80s pop and curiously timely and close to the cutting edge of things. Throughout it all, Cavalieri sings his heart out, keeping things deadpan and pointedly non-ironic, and injects a surprising amount of soul and sincerity into these defiantly plastic tunes.

"Vice Business Only" concludes with a cover of DURAN DURAN's non-album smash from 1984, "The Wild Boys". Measurably heavier than the original, but every bit as ludicrous, it confirms that V.B.O. are in the business of keeping the '80s spirit alive, while also forging a new path that, on this evidence, should lead to something more meaningful than blank-eyed nostalgia. Whatever happens, this is excellent fun.