Following up on their amazing 2008 debut Stainless Style, a conceptual tribute to visionary carmaker John DeLorean, Neon Neon have set their sites on Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli on the newly-released Praxis Makes Perfect, again on the stylish left-field hip-hop and electronica label Lex Records.

Combining the uniquely warm vocals of Super Furry Animals’ leader Gruff Rhys and the gleaming 80s-influenced electro-pop production work of Boom Bip, lead single “Mid-Century Modern Nightmare” musically sums up Feltrinelli’s world view circa the late 1950s. Feltrinelli was a book publisher with an affection for the avant garde and a left-wing political activist. He is probably best known for publishing the manuscript for Doctor Zhivago after spiriting it out of the Soviet Union. He later met Fidel Castro and supported communist causes in South America through his publishing house. While carrying out an activist plot in 1972, he died under mysterious circumstances. Heady stuff for an electro-pop record, but Neon Neon bring plenty of wit and style to make Praxis Makes Perfect consistently entertaining.