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La Roux.
The last time the British music scene was panting this hard was the early 1980's when slick-as-ice synthesizer bands such as The Human League, Yaz and Visage had big-haired club-kids gazing at their Doc Martens while doing the Safety Dance.
We called it New Wave then because it wasn't just about dance music, but about bringing style to one's whole being, from the way you dressed -- flamboyant suits with big shoulders and safety-pin earrings to the videos you watched. It even got its own television channels, MTV in the U.S. and MuchMusic in Canada. New Wave wasn't just a music trend, it was the fashion statement of the decade.
We assumed that New Wave died with the advent of Grunge, but we were wrong.
New Wave is enjoying a major revival in fashionable London and one of its leading faces is La Roux, a.k.a. Kelly Jackson, who plays one show here at the Capital Music Hall on Saturday.
"I think that for people who like electro pop, it never went away," the 21-year-old Londoner writes in our e-mail interview.
Once a painfully earnest singer-songwriter who was into Carole King and Nick Drake, Jackson met the publicity-shy Ben Langmaid at a 2006 party, discovering a mutual love for vintage synthesizer pop.
"I heard stuff like Eurythmics when I was really young cos my mum had it on around the house," she writes.
Adopting the name La Roux (after Jackson's red hair), the pair released her first single, the fully-electronic Quicksand a year later, and her second and third singles Bulletproof and In For the Kill off the debut album in 2009.
"We listened to a lot of '80s synth led music like Heaven 17, Blancmange, and Japan and that influenced our sound," she says.
But it was just as important that the band do more than look good. Like her childhood idols David Bowie and Prince, Jackson felt the band should be theatrical and fashionably bold.
"What's 'in fashion' isn't important to me, I wear what I feel most like me in. But style is important to me, I wanted La Roux to have a strong visual identity."
La Roux was nominated for a 2010 Brit Award for breakthrough act and British single prizes.
Unfortunately, La Roux isn't ready to believe all the hype over the New Wave revival. Frankly, she doesn't think that interest in her electronic dance music will last long.
Even more shocking, the pair is recording their second album and for the first time, they're playing acoustic guitars.
"I don't know if there'll suddenly be a huge, lasting electro pop resurgence. To be honest, I think (of it) as a fad. It's probably nearing an end."
See them before it's too late.
La Roux play the Capital Music Hall, 151 George St., on Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $18.50 at the door or online at Ticketmaster.ca.