Humanity, of all things, is the critical advantage that British synth-pop trio Heaven 17 enjoys over most of its technopeers. The Luxury Gap, Heaven 17's second album, finds the group combating drum-machine monotony and passionless synthesizer riffing with such touches as hearty blasts of real Earth, Wind and Fire brass on the funk-strut "Key to the World." On the U.K. hit single "Temptation," guest vocalist Karol Kenyon's glowing gospel wail soars over an ambitious mix of ping-pong electronics and swelling Philadelphia International strings, while the frenetic "Crushed by the Wheels of Industry" combines the cool snap of plug-in percussion and sly industrial sound effects with a jazzy piano solo and the migraine boom of real drums.

What's more, singer Glenn Gregory and synthesizer players Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh spike their classy dance songs with a sharp pinch of political defiance. The cynical cut of songs like "Crushed by the Wheels of Industry" ("It's time for a party/Syncopation for the nation now!") and "Let's All Make a Bomb" ("Let's celebrate and vapourize") is a hard slap in the face of the never-mind-the-apocalypse, let's-party ethic dominating current British pop. Heaven 17 is hardly the Clash of the computer age, but the group's stylish subversions on The Luxury Gap show that the trio is closing in. (RS 403)

DAVID FRICKE