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Watch me work it, I’m perfect! The return of electro-house, pop’s trashiest, brattiest sound

Mutating out of trance and electroclash in the 00s, the subgenre soon topped the charts – and thanks to Charli xcx, Saltburn and more, it’s back for another round of alcopops

Mason vs Princess Superstar’s 2007 track Perfect (Exceeder) had a prominent placement in Saltburn last year, catapulting it back into the collective consciousness (although it had already been surging in electronic circles due to dubstep newcomer Hamdi’s rework Counting). The original scene’s music videos, with oiled-up women using power tools, bouncing on exercise balls or playing trumpets in lingerie, were part of the same male-gaze era that produced Nuts and Zoo magazines, and have dated very badly. In a recent interview with the Face, Charli xcx said she missed “the time when pop music was really volatile and crazy … the Paris Hilton days”, adding that she wanted “things to feel quick and fast and dirty”.

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