Information Society prep full length reunion album

photo by Wil Foster

"This album is both a birth and a rebirth," explains Paul Robb of electronic act Information Society about the new album _hello world.

"It's been so long since we've made new music together it almost seems like a whole new thing, and yet anybody who has ever listened to one of our records will immediately recognize our style."

Set for release on Sept. 23 via HAKATAK International/MVD, the album marks the reunion of the original founding members of the band, Robb (synths), Kurt Larson (vocals) and James Cassidy (bass, keyboards), following the release of their single "Land of the Blind" which was released earlier this year.

"_hello world is our way of re-introducing ourselves to our old fans, and hopefully making the acquaintance of some new fans."

Originally forming in 1982 within the synthpop and New Wave worlds, Information Society (a.k.a. "INSOC") scored a top 10 dance hit in "Running" in 1985.

When asked about the band's new material, Robb says, "We've perhaps matured a bit, and that has enabled us to express some more nuanced emotions in our songs than we may have done earlier."

"Tomorrow the World," is a ballad that might have sounded out of place on earlier records, but on this album, it sounded right.

"We have traditionally not been a 'love song' kind of band," Robb says of the track. "In fact, most of our songs explore what happens when things do not work out so well, but this is a song both Kurt and I had been wanting to explore for a while. It was a situation where we said, 'We'll include it if it works, and leave it off if it doesn't.' Obviously, we thought it worked!"

Another throwback brought into the "now, is INSOC's cover of Devo's "Beautiful World" featuring that group's co-vocalist/founding member Gerald V Casale.

"We'd been toying around with doing covers of songs by some of our influences. Devo was hugely important to us when we were young, so of course we had to do a Devo cover. We had already decided on 'Beautiful World' when management reached out to and asked if he wanted to participate. When he said 'yes', it only made us more excited about recording the track. Turns out he and I live about a mile from each other!"

Information Society's Top 40 hits include their No. 1, "What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy)," "Walking Away," "Think" and "Peace & Love, Inc."