Spirit was originally released two years ago, but is only now getting a UK showing through the estimable people at All Tomorrow’s Parties. Although you would drop this album neatly into the post-rock pile, it veers enough away from the quiet/loud template to be memorable on its own terms.

The album offers the contrasting sounds of big swathes of ambient noise with some tribal percussion, before loud guitars jolt proceedings away the ambient, leading to some hefty slabs of noise-rock. Vocals, such as there are, are very much part of the song textures, rather than a vehicle for lyrical meaning, and thus add to the atmosphere. The (possibly unintended) reference point for this album, in parts, is Massive Attack’s Mezzanine, if Mezzanine shed its dance sensibilities and focused on aggressive, loud guitar. Admittedly not in the same league as that record, Spirit still manages to do something different within a genre that was becoming tired, and holds up well two years after it was recorded.

Richard Davie