When most Americans think of Australia, marsupials, "Mad Max," Foster's Beer or images of Paul Hogan brandishing a Bowie knife probably spring to mind. But there's another Aussie sensation that deserves a spot in your temporal lobe. A sonic trend from Down Under is mounting a U.S. invasion.

OK, so Cut Copy, the leading lads of Australia's latter-day synth-pop movement, don't have some nefarious plot to plunder our land. But the Melbourne band's ability to craft infectious dance-rock is downright sinister. Along with a slew of other bands hailing from kangaroo country, including Midnight Juggernauts, the Presets and Miami Horror, Cut Copy is at the vanguard of a musical renaissance that draws on '80s-sounding synthesizers and intoxicating dance beats. Black Eyed Peas rapper Will.i.am even stated the American group's 2009 album "The E.N.D." was heavily influenced by the Presets and the Australian electro club scene.

So why is the continent that brought us AC/DC, INXS and Wolfmother suddenly such a hotbed for bands adopting synths as their instruments of choice?

"It's funny, that [the synth-pop scene] has always existed in Australia, but around 2005, 2006 it crossed into more of the commercial market, and with the help of the Internet it really broadcast around the world," Cut Copy guitarist Tim Hoey explained. "It just kind of seemed to happen without anybody really thinking about it being this kind of collective. It's kind of tough to really say why this is such a focus in Australia at the moment, but it certainly does seem to be."

While the origins of the Aussie electro-boom may be a bit of a mystery (my theory that the Australian government blasts New Order through the streets of Melbourne failed to hold up to scrutiny), Cut Copy did utilize a uniquely Australian instrument to shape its sound on "Zonoscope," the band's third album released earlier this year on Modular Recordings.

Developed by Australian natives Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie, the Fairlight was one of the first sampling synthesizers, becoming popular in the 1980s among artists like Grace Jones, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush and Herbie Hancock. Hoey fondly describes its sound as "archaic" and "clunky." The Fairlight's punchy percussion sounds can be heard on hip-swiveling Cut Copy tracks like "Blink and You'll Miss a Revolution" and "Pharoahs and Pyramids."

For the recording of "Zonoscope" (Cut Copy's name for a fictitious lens required to view the world that the album creates for listeners), striking a balance between organic and synthetic percussive elements was a high priority for Hoey & Co., and that was aided by the band's studio digs. Cut Copy moved its recording equipment into a Melbourne warehouse, where the group holed up for the better part of a year to write and record the dream-house masterpiece.

"It was this constant process of building down and breaking up, until we had the nucleus of the song and what the focus of the song was and building around that," he said.

Cut Copy grabbed headlines last year when word got out that the group turned down an offer to tour with mega-super-ultra pop star Lady Gaga. Hoey insists the decision wasn't "an ego thing" -- rather, the timing just wasn't right, as the band would have had to put off finishing its record. "For a non-event, I almost feel like I've done the tour because it's been recycled and talked about so much," Hoey jokes. "But it wasn't like it was really a big deal to us."

As Cut Copy continues its U.S. assault, the only places the band really plans on pillaging are used record stores. Hoey admits Cut Copy has an attachment to the "romantic notion" of rifling through crates of records, seeking hidden gems. Two weeks into the European leg of the tour, Hoey had already accrued a suitcase full of vinyl to send home.

"We use touring as a way of absorbing a lot of new music," he said. "Pretty much every city we get into we go and hunt down old secondhand record stores and buy as many as we can."

So while Cut Copy's dance-rock incursion may not pose an actual security threat to American citizens, you might want to lock up your obscure Liquid Liquid and Our Daughter's Wedding records while these blokes are in town.

The Sydney duo earned some high-profile fans in Will.i.am and Kanye West, with the latter reportedly describing them as "ill." Slightly more club-sounding than Cut Copy and the Juggernauts, the Presets dominated the 2008 ARIAs (Australia's Grammys), nabbing six awards including best group and best album. They're playing next week's Coachella festival in Indio, Calif.

You probably know Empire's 2008 hit "We Are the People" -- that song you thought was MGMT the first five times you heard it. With "Star Wars"-meets-Tutankhamun album artwork and elaborate costumes for their stage show, the band is also playing Coachella.

If a time-traveling DJ spun a Miami Horror record at a South Beach club during the post-disco '80s, coke-sniffing patrons might not suspect they were shaking their asses to music produced by a guy, Benjamin Plant, who hadn't even been born yet. Expect to hear more from Miami Horror soon, as the band is relocating to Los Angeles in August.

Simply put, a shoegaze version of Depeche Mode. The Cut Copy and Presets labelmates give off a slightly drearier vibe than their house-loving contemporaries. U.S. fans might recognize "Sex City" off the band's self-titled EP, which was sampled on the Crystal Castles track "Vanished."