[Clone]

For those who find much of techno, house and electro to be too damn optimistic, nihilistic duo The Hasbeens and their “Keep Fooling Yourself” 12″ offer a welcome reprieve. Its three tracks are surprisingly catchy, retro-minded Italo disco and electro rather than gut-busting EBM racket or sanity grinding hard house, contrasting dystopic themes with bittersweet hooks. But The Hasbeens (Dutch producers Alden Tyrell and DJ Overdose) summon up the bleakest titles and some of the most depressing imagery — a slumped over body hanged from a ceiling fan that serves as their logo — to ensure no one misinterprets their grim message.

“Make The World Go Away,” which first appeared on a limited, single-side 12″ on Clone, hones in on those who are dancing to forget the outside world, marked by vocordered lyrics of “make the world go away / and take its weight off my shoulders.” Relying on lo-fi production which threatens to break its rickety drum machine frame, the duo coax flaring melodies in stereotypically Italo intervals that are easy to get lost in. They heap more stylistic dirt on “Ain’t The Same As Before,” which could have easily appeared on a long forgotten 45: its crackling arpeggios rally around the defeated chorus, “People I used to know / just don’t know me any more.” The record’s last tune, “Keep Fooling Yourself,” is its most upbeat and dated, a mixture of the bests and worsts of 80s electro pop such that might have landed it in my mom’s “aerobics-only” crate back in the day. This platter might not be the freshest sounding (something Clone has never cared about, in my estimation), but with it The Hasbeens hit upon a sweet spot which cuts across a wide swath of tastes (Denis Karimani, aka Remute, is a noted fan) and may well have listeners willing to postpone offing themselves to get more.