Discussing The Aston Shuffle’s forever-in-the-works debut album Seventeen Past Midnight will invariably bring up (one of) dance music’s current black sheep; electro. So let’s get it out of the way now. While that genre has taken hits in recent years thanks to over-population and certainly over-saturation, it probably hasn’t deserved to be abandoned and bagged by so many. Even though kids with laptops are producing distorted electro abortions for blogs and the likes of Stargate and Dr. Luke are making the mainstream sound like old Tepr tunes there are artists still making interesting and assured steps forward in the scene, the peanut gallery be damned. That brings us back to The Aston Shuffle who with Seventeen Past Midnight have created an album with plenty of smarts and hooky spark to match its pulsating electro lifeblood.

Having enjoyed a continued swell of success with each phase of their career – all coming to a head recently with the group racking up milestones such as the #1 spot on the inthemix50, a fancy-pants new live show and the hosting duties for Friday nights on triple j – the expectations awaiting Seventeen Past Midnight are pretty weighty to say the least. Taking up the challenge, the Canberra duo of Mikah Freeman and Vance Musgrove don’t waste a breath in declaring their intentions, launching into the crunchy, clubby pop of I Wanna See You which marries stuttering vocoder lines with tightly wound electronics and nodding kick thumps. While we heard it last year as an early album single it makes plenty of sense as an opener, beginning the record on an accessible note and setting the pace for what’s ahead.

Keeping the heart-rate up with The Surface, the Astons rope in Lost Valentinos frontman Nik Yiannikas for a rousing turn before repeating their opening feat with Your Love, another robo-voiced jam that was everywhere over summer. While that sounds like overkill, the thrills are thankfully doubled here with the standout hands in the air breakdown and overdriven synths propelling the tune forwards.

Those first few tunes are solid evidence that The Aston Shuffle possess some legitimate songwriting skills and keen pop touches, yet they’re equally comfortable aiming for dancefloors with something like Drop burning a serious hole in the floor boards with its turbo machine whirs and massive titular drop. Elsewhere, the French-touch instrumental Amaze gives Braxe, Falke, Falcon and co. a run for their money with pristine synths and floating vibes and Where Are Your Teeth reveals some well-studied funk and disco influences. Likewise, the decision to fob off their own lyrics and instead manipulate a sacred sample of The Go-Betweens’ Streets Of Your Town is inspired one, with the Astons stitching together a very pleasant bit of patchwork-pop.

Despite what I initially thought was a soft single choice ahead of the album’s release, Start Again could be the highlight of Seventeen Past Midnight. With a stellar vocal feature from locals Lovers Electric, Start Again pretty much nails The Aston Shuffle’s sound with that ever-growling bass, those widescreen beats and skewed synthesizer heroics giving it an electrifying charge.

The Canberra duo’s LP offering is by no means flawless, however, with a couple of clunkers stalling the album’s progress. Anticipointment suffers from rather awkward phrasing for one, but even taken as an instrumental it treads the same turf as Drop and Bring It Back. As enjoyable as the Danimal Kingdom-fronted Do You Want More was on release in 2009 it’s now two years old and its inclusion on the LP feels somewhat unnecessary. Album closer Into Forever sees the return of Yiannikas to the mic, but his strained yelp has nowhere of any great importance to go, with the beeping synth punches overpowering the song’s progression. Sequenced earlier in the album it could’ve worked, but as a finale it’s unfortunately ineffective.

Those quibbles are rather minor when looking at the bigger picture though and as a body of work The Aston Shuffle’s debut album certainly delivers on the years of anticipation and hype, no matter what label is attached to the music within. Seventeen Past Midnight shows the once-wildcard Canberrans proving their chops as confident songwriters and producers while making a convincing play for the big time.

Seventeen Past Midnight is out on April 15th through Downright/Ministry of Sound.