Cassettes, as in those rectangular plastic things you used to buy or copy music on, thankfully are not coming back. Cassette, as in the band who had hits like 'Beautiful Smile', 'Sometimes' and 'Love With The Light On', thankfully are.

And judging from 'Who Do You Trust?', their new single and title track of their forthcoming second album, they're not about to go the way of the tape.

Not satisfied with going from indie underdogs to 2007 SAMA award winners and globe trotters, Jon Savage (vocals), Jane Breetzke (keys), Andrew Wessels (drums) and Nathan Waywell (bass) have clearly taken a leap forward from their debut disc 'Welcome Back To Earth'.

So the quartet spent the latter part of 2008 in the studio along with producer Darryl Torr, best known as half of Harris Tweed/Dear Reader and, more recently, for his work on Zebra & Giraffe's debut album. The game was upped even further when they secured the man most famous for his work with the Killers.

"When Mark Needham got attached, we knew we were onto something big," admits Savage, who is in Los Angeles while Needham mixes the album.

His and Torr's work are as apparent in the powerful, slick sound of the single as Savage's improved vocal skills and the band's growing ambition.

"When we started working on 'Who Do You Trust?' with Darryl, he had just won a Grammy for producing Soweto Gospel Choir," Savage celebrates.

"Sonically he's added a whole new world to this album and found space and size where you least expect it. We were also listening to loads of Kings of Leon and listening to the size of what they were doing. It was an inspiring time. Add our human tech-wizard, Grant Katzin, who played engineer, and very quickly we were exploring every single nuance to create the best sounds.

The final piece in the puzzle was Needham. "The guy is an international legend!" Savage rejoices.

"He added so much to the mix! He has loads of Grammy nominations. Oh, and there is Steve Hall, our master-meister. At last count he had won 15 Grammys! That's a lot of Grammy award winners for one album.?

Now signed to EMI Music, the group have clearly come a long way since their inauspicious beginnings.

"It's very easy to impress people when they don?t have any expectations of you. So we managed to impress people a lot," Savage jests of Cassette's 2007 SAMA win and 2008 MTV Africa nomination for Best Live Performance.

"As soon as you win a SAMA, the tables turn. You are expected to be good. We have poured our hearts and souls into this album and you will definitely hear that. It's very personal, it's very hard hitting and it's very honest," he continues.

"We've explored and mined our own creative heights and have not merely 'duplicated the formula'. We?ve pushed ourselves and have taken a lot of risks all that makes for some appealing listening."

'Who Do You Trust' ? featuring a total of 11 songs ? is released in March.