Curryholic Liverpool-based quartet insist they aren't synth retro in an exclusive e-chat.

Ladytron's debut album slipped out in April to critical acclaim, but '604' is still largely an unknown quantity, as are its creators, Ladtyron co-founders (in 1998) Daniel Hunt and Reuben Wu (joined live and in the studio by Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo). In keeping with their new-century approach, we converse with the guys by e-mail.

Reuben Wu kicks off the cyberchat. "The intention to make '604' such a diverse album was because we're all interested in different types of music. To create something any less diverse would be a wasted opportunity. We'd like to work on more abstract stuff later on."

Daniel Hunt: "We were aiming for something that hasn't actually been done before, which might be more apparent when the album is viewed with hindsight. Obviously there is massive contrast, 'Zmeyka' to 'Playgirl' for example, which reflects what we're into. People tend to pick up on early 80s influences, because of the first singles, so it felt good to f**k with that from the get go on the LP."

Casual mental sex...

Daniel: "Blondie and Giorgio Moroder are valid [comparisons], the Kraftwerk thing is based on one song, and is a lazy comparison, also because we dress as a unit. So did The Beatles. We don't walk around in
Kraftwerk outfits, or revive any fashion from that period, that's the difference between us and some of the wankers we're compared to at the moment. Our dressing in those black uniforms has been referred to as 'stylish'. It was supposed to be anti-style, antifashion, anti-80s. That was the whole point of doing it."

Isn't the impact of such valiant forays undermined by boy and girl-groups, from Hear'Say to Gorilllaz, lowering the general tone and making it more difficult for quality to chart?

"Ha, Valiant, that's one of my favourite words," Daniel responds. "We have a Cavalier approach to pop music, but we do consider what we do < pop music>, we want to get inside and f**k with from within, like
'Playgirl' having a pure effect on the casual listener when they hear it. Anything can be pop music these days, as long as it has a good melody, an atmosphere and a regular beat, it's there. I wouldn't put Gorillaz in the same bracket as Hear'Say. Slightly harsh of you there. I think Gorillaz is a breath of fresh air when the kids are all buying Limp Bizkit records, at least some 9 year old somewhere is going to be thinking about something."

Cartoon characters? Let's get serious...

Together in peroxide dreams...

J Bloggs record shopper purchases '604' as well as an ELO album; do they get annoyed, disgusted or subverted?

Daniel: "I love ELO, so none of the above."

What passes the band's quality threshold to gladden their downtime moments?

Daniel: "I've been through phases of having no quality threshold at all, I've developed one again, but actually, I'm not sure if I have downtime. Probably football actually, it's completely out of character, but it's great therapy for those who exist in a state of analogue synthesis 24 hours a day."

Reuben: "Curry,"

If Ladytron were to meet Ralf or Florian Kraftwerk, what would be the uppermost thing they'd need to find out?

Reuben: "If they like curry too..."

Imagine: Eminem and Gary Numan want the same sample of a Ladytron song, who gets the clearance?

Daniel: "Numan wants to remix us actually. Probably Eminem as it would be more subversive to get into the heads of his fans, and besides we'd get much more money, Actually my girlfriend dreamt last night that Eminem phoned me to check out my tunes, Cool."

Idealists, materialists, or a synthesis of both?

Daniel: "Our music fits somewhere between Religion and Value... definitely not Art. Value added Religion, What we do is supposed to have a purpose, a usefulness of some kind, so therefore could not be classified as Art. That's why we never aligned ourselves with the underground, we want to exist in our own space and be capable of anything."

Reuben: "I would prefer to tour via ISDN,"

Daniel: "We're touring Europe in June, US in July, Festivals all through the summer, UK will probably not see us tour till the autmn."

Another chance to hook up and make yourself useful, then...