After two years of non-stop touring, The Presets began production of Apocalypso in early 2007 by going to a farm in Byron Bay for two weeks.[2][3] The duo had no songs written or any idea what the album would sound like before hitting the farm.[4] Basing themselves in Berlin, the band continued work on the album while touring in Europe.[2] The majority of the album was recorded by the band themselves at their own individual home studios. The songs were finished at a friend's studio and the album was mixed at BJB Studios in Sydney and at Seedy Underbelly in Los Angeles.[3] The album was mastered at The Exchange in London.
Kim Moyes, describing the album, said "There is a few songs on Apocalypso that have been informed by our live shows in terms of their energy, after two-and-a-bit years of touring we really found out what we liked playing and what works well live, but the album as a whole however is not all bangers, there are some very delicate moments too."[5] The group also wanted Apocalypso to be far more song-focused. Moyes told Rolling Stone Australia: "With [previous album] Beams, we didn't think too much about it. The more fucked up it was, the better. But now the vision’s been refined and instead of instrumentals, now we're like 'fuck, let’s just have killer songs.'"[6]
In an interview with Australian national radio station Triple J, the band members discussed how they came up with the album's title, stating that it evolved from "Apocalypse Wow", a suggestion by Hamilton. "Y'know the idea of the apocalypse and a calypso together. Something very dark, very intense, you can't get much worse than an apocalypse. And then a calypso which is just super fun, like mojitos, steel drums."[7]
Apocalypso was the album that brought the Presets to mainstream audiences.[11] The album debuted at number one on the ARIA charts,[12] and achieved gold certification within two weeks.[13] The album has since gone platinum.[14] In October 2008, the album won the 2008 ARIA Awards for Best Dance Release and Album of the Year.[15] By winning the ARIA for Album of the Year, Apocalypso became the first dance album to win the award. It also won the Artisan Awards for Best Cover Art (Jonathan Zawada) and Producer of the Year (The Presets), missing out on the award for Engineer of the Year (Scott Horscroft). It was also nominated for the Highest Selling Album in 2009.[16] In December, the album won the J Award.[17] In October 2010, it was listed in the book 100 Best Australian Albums.[18]
^Knight, David (10 April 2008). "Go Hard Go Home". Rip It Up. Archived from the original on 21 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-12.
^Kendrick, Martin (April 2008). "The Presets - Interview". noizemakesenemies.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 December 2008. Retrieved 1 May 2008.
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