Those who warmed to the click/strum electronic pop of their Kennington Records debut ep Hide And Sleep last autumn will revel in Pass Fail. This new collection sees the duo drawing from a deep musical well but wrapping the songs in a melancholic shroud that balances between digital and acoustic.

The duo deliver songs of real strength among all the understatement, minor chords, ghostly echoes and ethereal clicks, giving the album a solid base in which, on tracks like Forked, allows them to roam to more abstract territory. But don¹t be deceived by the odd ambient sojourn: the misty, forlorn atmosphere contains the odd heartbeat-raiser such as 108 or Sliding, Drifting, Sinking, packing a sonic wallop that could more than hold its own down the indie disco.

But it is the duo¹s knack of making heart-nagging, intricate, beautiful but ­ most importantly ­ interesting music that will hopefully give them the plaudits they deserve. Just handle them with love and care ­ they sound like they¹ve been through a lot recently.

Manchester Music:

Leander (or alternatively the output of Lars and Daniel Kranholdt) provide a very contemporary Germanic soundtrack. This seems to borrow heavily from a range of British and French artists, interlacing loops and samples with the tasty hooklines of guitar and bass. The lyrics are simple and the ambience pleasant; and you’d expect such an intricate and interesting combination of elecronica and New Order-ish riffs to have come from Manchester. It’s from Berlin however; which means it has the chic of blokes in black polo necks mucking around with patch wires, specialist synths and cut and paste software. "Sliding Drifting Sinking" (see also "108") shifts up a gear and that previously referenced guitar sends shivers down the spine as a barely audible vocal drifts overhead. An excellent outing where digitalism clashes with dreamy sombre ballads.