Roll back nearly two years to a small room in a Belfast house. Toying with ideas and pushing all the buttons on their keyboards led duo Rocky O’Reilly and Shawn Robinson, otherwise known as Oppenheimer, to fall into a sound that the BBC called “All poetic and blip-tastic‚” After looping, cutting and recording enough tracks, they soon started playing in local clubs. Encouraged, they started sending music to their favorite labels, Bar/None being the first. In the six months that it took an intern in the Hoboken office of Bar/None records to dig their CD from a pile, the two had continued writing and recording two minute slices of pop, and were making friends at home. They played shows with acts like Ash, Architecture In Helsinki, Tilly & The Wall and The Bravery and were proclaimed as “immensely watchable pop-peddlers‚” by the Belfast Telegraph. By the start of 2006 Oppenheimer had completed a session with guest vocalist Tim Wheeler of Ash, and put the final synthesizer bleeps on their debut album. A limited edition, hand printed 7” was released in the UK in April, selling out quickly. Bar/None released the album on June 6th, followed by releases in Australia, Japan and Thailand. What followed was give or take hundreds of shows, lots of nice words, and a continued enthusiasm and joy, not to mention sixteen weeks of touring in the states and another sixteen in Europe that helped Oppenheimer hone their lush Electronic pop sound. At the same time their tracks have found their way into television shows like How I Met Your Mother and Ugly Betty and commercial campaigns for Fujifilm and Nike, switching even more people onto this Irish two piece. Oppenheimer then hit the road with They Might Be Giants in North America, before returning to Ireland to record again… And now the dynamic duo are set to release their sophomore long player for Bar/None Records, brazenly titled Take the Whole Midrange and Boost It. We ask, is it a shot at the shallow pre-fab pop machine, a heady and complicated insight to their own sound engineering techniques or are Rocky and Shaun going macro, rendering a title that we’re supposed to take as a metaphor for Life on Earth? No doubt Oppenheimer are thinking man’s pop, as hackneyed as the term may be. The new record embraces some pretty esoteric themes: Politics? Fireworks in New Jersey. Cate Blanchett impersonators. But they’re certainly not all above the neck. The band’s soaring, visceral approach is pure pop for now people, winning the love of friends, fans and press alike-- Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol proclaiming, “Oppenheimer are like the Irish Flaming Lips or Mates of State. It’s extremely rare for a band from Belfast to have that otherworldly sound. They’re an incredible new band.” Alternative Ulster Magazine voted the band #1 Most Likely To Succeed Amongst Irish Music Professionals and that Ireland’s ubiquitous Hot Press has said, "Their warm electro pop make Oppenheimer stand apart in a city dominated by dreary guitar bands,” and that they hit #37 in the CMJ Top 200. And it hasn’t only been the obvious giving the duo their props, but also people like Matt Caughtran of thrash-punk godheads The Bronx who lends his voice to the appropriately heavy handed song, “The Never Never,” and gleefully says of the experience, "I am stoked and thankful to have been a part of this record." The other 11 songs embody Oppenheimer’s trademark epic synth and guitar driven pop, but with equally varied tones. The kick off “Major Television Events,” is reminiscent of “Breakfast In NYC” from their 2006 self-titled debut. The aforementioned “Cate Blanchett” is a vast pop soundscape, “Support Our Truths” harnesses a sweet, memorable melody in classic Oppenheimer form and “Only Goal And Winner” slides from a swirling haze of synths and chorale voices befcre locking into a beat that takes it to another level of pop genius. And that’s just to describe a few. But why dance about architecture?