INTERPOL Antics Matador ****

In case you hadn't realised, rock music has recently been sucked into a post-punk chrono-synclastic infundibulum, and once again we're neck-deep in Joy Division, Gang of Four, Kraftwerk and all sorts of arty dancefloor manoeuvres. There seems to be no escape from this referential black hole - where can Franz Ferdinand and The Rapture go from here? - but this New York quartet may just have found a wormhole in the matrix. Their début album, Turn on the Bright Lights, doffed its fedora to the ironic sounds of early-1980s England, but immersed itself in a unique sonic smog, emerging as a dark, monumental pop record that transcended its more obvious influences.

Like The Strokes' Room on Fire, Antics doesn't represent a seismic shift in style, but you can feel the strength and stridency in such tracks as Evil, Take You on a Cruise, Public Pervert and Length of Love. Their ambition is made clear in the opening ballad, Next Exit: "We ain't going to the town/We're going to the city". If Interpol haven't quite developed a swagger, they've certainly found a more purposeful pace on Slow Hands, Not Even Jail and C'Mere; Paul Banks's tunneling voice finds new spaces to fill, while the guitars, bass and drums of Daniel Kessler, Carlos D and Sam Fogarino keep the atmosphere dark and labyrinthine, while occasionally letting a burst of sunny optimism lift things up into the clouds. Not quite Revolutions, but definitely Reloaded with a vengeance.