Friendly Fires

St. Albans trio Friendly Fires have propelled themselves, over the course of two excellent albums and a fecund bunch of groove-inducing tunes, into that mystical golden zone that unites leftfield and mainstream, loose-cannon electronica and straight-up pop, sweaty dancefloor and pub jukebox. The band's self-titled 2008 debut album generated enough interest to pick up a Mercury Prize nomination, as the world woke up to the astral escapism of "Jump in the Pool" (their first hit), the big-dreaming charm of "Paris" and the rocked-up funk of "In the Hospital". It was like filtering the '80s through two decades of Ibiza: their sound retained the crispness of the new, and was fleshed out in impressive style on fizzing follow-up album Pala (2011) which boasts too many highlights to mention — we'd pick out "Hawaiian Air" and "Blue Cassette" as the ideal means to get acquainted.