Preview: Electric picnic, Stradbally Village, Nr Dublin

Go electro alfresco with pop duo

(MATT JELONEK/ GETTY IMAGES)

For the past half a decade, The Presets, who will be one of the main attractions of this Irish festival, have been partying their way around the world. Their machismo electro, with thumping bass lines and addictive melodies, has had club audiences dancing ever since the release of "Are You The One?" in 2005, which finally made the top 100 in their native Australia in March 2008.

Despite their heavy wall of sound, The Presets consist only of two members: Julian Hamilton (vocals and synths) and Kim Moyes (drums). Their live shows have become something of an attraction, Hamilton never failing to whip the audience into a frenzy; their excitement is his drug.

"You spend most of your time gearing your day around that one hour on stage," he says, "trying to rest when you can, trying not to party too hard or too often, making sure that for that one hour you look like a superhero and then you walk off stage and you feel dead!" Their attitude is straight-up, old-school show business.

While Moyes knew he wanted to be a musician from the age of 12, Hamilton's induction was complete chance. Since boyhood, his contact with music had been singing at his local church choir every Sunday.

The pair initially bonded out of their love of all things Eighties, and films such as The Thing and Halloween; the synths used to create suspense would all serve as influences for The Presets.

The hallmark Eighties mixture of electro and dance with haunting vocals has made their mark, especially on their new single "This Boy's In Love".

"We used to feel like dancing and screwing are the two things that we are still allowed to enjoy in life, and for a while we wanted to make music that encouraged people to do one of those things or both," offers Hamilton. "I am a little bit worried that stylistically there are still a lot of different styles on our new album Apocalypso," he adds. "That said, there are a lot of dance acts out there that do consistent records, and it's cool but we'd get a bit bored."

Jenny Pashkova

29 to 31 August www.electricpicnic.ie