There are 2 bands with this name:

1. The Model from Philadelphia, USA. Combining Fischerspooner without the sense of failure and Depeche Mode without the fetish, The Model create an excellent blend of catchy synthpop & electro reminding us of The Human League in songs like What Does It Look Like I'm Doing?. With the recent release of their debut Physical. The Model is about ready to take over the electronic world.

2. The Model from Bucharest, Romania.

Words by Tom Wilson: Good guys never make it to the top. Ours is an era in which most of the people who break through barely deserve to be allowed to live, never mind have their own radio shows. However, the rise and rise of The Model has been almost enough to rekindle my faith in that old adage about cream floating to the surface.

His biography is starting to look unnervingly like the kind of Mid-West fairy story that all-American mothers tell their God-fearing, homeland-loving kids before they go to bed. Given that 99% of the radio jocks and big name DJs in Romania couldn't tell you the difference between prog-house and prog-rock, The Models sudden burst onto the Romanian scene was long overdue. However, it was The Model signing to Gigolo Records back in 2005 that came as the first real vindication of that all-too illusory ladder of success. Though it might have been a pleasant surprise, I cant say that its been entirely unexpected.

From the first time that he started listening to electronic music in 1995, inspired by a trip to the States, to his first experiences in production five years later, The Model has displayed an all-consuming passion for what he does. It was the unavailability of the music that had so inspired him in the US that drove him to his first, more industrial sounding sonic experiments. As the neo-liberal mantra goes, he was simply plugging a gap in the market. The same goes for his establishment of his own Elektro.Casnice label in the same year: nobody else was making use of the huge pool of talent that existed in the Sibiu area. The Model managed not only to develop a powerful group identity for the artists he drew around him, but also managed to provide huge motivation towards their collective success.

The first Romanian producer to get signed to Gigolo; the first Romanian producer to have a release on the seminal techno label Traum; The Model is not only blazing a trail, but bringing others with him. Its no surprise then, that Elektro.Casnice label-mate Mihai Popviciu and Masstyk were signed to Gigolo alongside The Model. I cant even pretend to know what to expect from him next. If he announced that he was going to write the Great American Novel, or start an oil company, Id probably believe him. And although I still dont believe that good guys make it to the top, if the Model keeps going like this, I might just have to revise my ideas. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.