Sure, they look stunningly handsome and young, but don't let that fool you: Belgium's Das Pop have come a long way. After making two successful albums ( 2000's “I Love” and 2003's “The Human Thing”) , touring the fuck out of them and losing two band members in the process, Bent Van Looy, Niek Meul and Reinhard Vanbergen suddenly found themselves reduced to a trio. A trio with a singing drummer, no less. Was that enough to get the job done? Was it ever!

They've kept the name, but Das Pop is basically a new band, for the recording process of their new album turned out to be a little more dramatic than expected. Their producers, the fantastic Stephen and David Dewaele (Soulwax, 2ManyDJ's) made them hand in their synths, sequencers and copy's of ProTools. They piled them all up, poured gasoline over them, and all danced savagely around the electronic bonfire. Free at last!

You see, the Dewaeles were taking Das Pop to a place where they had no use for synths. A place that vibrated with an early Beatles-like energy, where every take was played like it was the last take ever. Just listen to “Tired”, the album teaser and MySpace hit- pop music at it's most rudimentary, raw, nude and exciting- and try to keep still. See? Told you you couldn't do it.

Impressed? Wait till you see them live. These three musicians have been playing together for most of their adult lives, and it shows. On stage, they stop being a band and turn into a kind of musical organism. A sweating beast that produces one long euphoria-inducing rush of a set. The last survivor of a species that's about to be extinct, frenetically fighting for its life.

The message is simple: go watch Das Pop, you owe it to yourself. And take your friends, you owe it to them, too.

www.myspace.com/daspop