Boxstep record with Shellacโ€™s live soundman, Bill Shibbe. As such, heโ€™s helped furnish brooding gothic ballads with enormous mettle. Rolling grand pianos, menacing violins and shards of guitar make this sound like a cross between The Bad Seeds and Godspeed You! Black Emperorโ€™s gale force ebb and flow.

Itโ€™s an imposing, imperious album, but Boxstepโ€™s cerebral approach means impassioned crescendos rarely teeter over into melodrama. Thankfully, any quiet-to-loud dynamics are shelved in favour of clarity and coherence.