The Skull Defekts – Dances in Dreams of the Known Unknown

Welcome to the pleasuredrone. You have to hear this. Or maybe you don’t. (But you do.) Latest album from the Swedish noise stalwarts is more of their very particular barrage of manic beats and scuzzy guitars. Singer Daniel Higgs’ vocal technique – force yourself down an octave and deliver in darkly portentous tones – is one part Andrew Eldritch, one part Joan Rivers. Seriously, you could do your floorboards with Higgs’ vocals.

This is a record so ridiculously lacking in self-awareness, so caught up in the twisted logic of its own peculiar bombast, you simply have to submit. It occupies, as its title suggests and its song titles only confirm (Cyborganization, King of Misinformation), that iffy no man's land between a bit daft and deadly fucking serious. It has scale and reach, and serious, ear-boxing tune-age. It’s good and will no doubt find an audience, but they’re kidding themselves if they think they can get away without a little (good-natured) ribbing.