It’s not every day that a debut album is so anticipated, but bloggers were chattering about Miami Horror’s first full-length. For good reason. With Illumination, they’ve made a strong case for being the best electro outfit to come out of Melbourne since Cut Copy. Founder/frontman Ben Plant, aka Ben Vanguarde, has created Australian retro electro — a combination of ’70s disco and ’90s brit pop that brings us to a third unknown place. It’s like roller skating through a prairie. Or, like their music video for single “Holiday,” it’s like a weekend getaway with a hipster octopus. Surprising, but kind of cool. Josh Moriarty (guitar), Adam Shanahan (drums), and Daniel Whitechurch (keys, guitar, bass guitar) add the instrumentation to Plant’s beats that bring disco into the 21st century.

Photo by MTV IGGY.