The Whip (UK)

There is no trickery here. No expensive visuals, no Topshop new rave outfits, no gimmicks, just a band - Bruce Carter (vocals/ guitar), Danny Saville (machines/ synthesisers), Nathan Sudders (bass) and Fiona Daniels (drums) - utterly in tune with the crossover electro-rock spirit of the times, creating scenes of northern rave mayhem the equal of anything ever witnessed at Electric Chair or Bugged Out.

With Nathan and Fiona recruited to the cause (just after they had split up as a couple no less), and The Whip MySpace getting appreciative hits, the band embarked on a punishing schedule of gigs that hasn't let up since. A series of limited singles, debut 'Frustration' (Kids), 'Trash' (LaVolta) and then 'Muzzle No1' with Southern Fried, now their permanent home, helped spread the word.

As did the attentions of Gildas Loaëc, chief tastemaker at the impeccably cool French record and fashion label, Kitsuné . Bowled over by tracks he had stumbled across online, the sometime Daft Punk manager rushed 'Trash' on to his Maison 3 compilation and subsequently put out The Whip's 'Divebomb' single. The effect, particularly in Japan where Kitsune are big news, was startling.

If 'X Marks Destination' is about anything, says Bruce, it's about, in a increasingly hostile world, craving precisely the escape that good dance music offers: "It's a celebration of freedom. Forgetting about shit, going out, having a good time. A lot of the lyrics are about struggling towards that freedom." And it is a struggle. 'Muzzle No1' or 'Trash', for instance, (the latter originally, "a long piece of bullshit all about spitting at people"), are very much modern, mixed-up dance tracks. They're cathartic anthems, that induce chaos on dancefloors, but there's nothing dumb or sappy about them. There's no upbeat rhetoric. Instead, they brim with a very 21st century sense of frustration and alienation. It's a Manchester thing, reckons Bruce: "There's an intensity, an industrial vibe to the city, that definitely rubs off on the music."