Opening to drum rolls and fractured beat patterns that gradually gives way to a steady rhythm, the album is a succession of glitches and beeps that slowly trickle through the songs, like sand through your fingers. While many of the sounds he uses are harsh and grating, overall the music is quite delicate. The gorgeous ‘My Angel Rocks Back And Forth’ creates a rhythm from Darth Vader-like breaths backing a sublime harp loop. There is a feeling -such as on the single ‘She Moves She’ where the track appears to break down halfway through, or ‘Spirit Fingers’ which seems to be playing at the wrong speed -that it could all fall apart at any moment. Hebden’s talent lies in holding the whole thing together.

The album’s centrepiece is the nine-minute ‘Unspoken’. Formed around a simple piano loop and a solid rock beat the track builds up to encompass gently humming horns, before drifting off into a dreamy finish. Despite its length it avoids being epic or self-indulgent.

His jazz influences creep back into the music on the mournful ‘And They All Look Broken Hearted’, but it is his forays into funk and hip-hop that are the most interesting. ‘As Serious As Your Life’ combines a cool liquid funk with spooky synth riffs for a very understated groove.

Foraging his own path, Hebden makes music like no-one else does. Yet despite the complexity of the sounds, it is the melodic beauty and simplicity that makes the tracks work. One of the best albums you’ll hear this year.

words: Colm Larkin