More folk than tronic these days, the new Tunng album is a decidedly more pop orientated record than previous affairs. Don’t be surprised when opening track Hustle crops up on a mobile phone advert; such is its chirpy, skipping like a stone on the water charm.

This is very much a new Tunng – founding member Sam Genders has departed leaving Becky Jacobs to take on a more prominent vocal role. A period of inertia followed this seismic shift as the band struggled to redefine themselves but the shackles of the past are well and truly cast off by track 3 – Don’t Look Down Or Back – an anthemic song in both title and sound.

In fact, such is the confidence which spills out of every song on their fourth album that they could have just as easily titled the thing And Then We Saw The Light.

While many of the bleeps and squeaks of the earlier albums have been filtered out, none of the adventurousness and willingness to experiment has gone. October begins life as the very essence of sweet English folk, pivoting around a strummed chord which hangs in the air before the whole song turns into as freaky a slice of freak-folk as you’re ever likely to hear – all chopped up rhythms and looped vocals.

For those of you who miss the bleeps and squeaks, have patience; there are plenty of tracks on here that re-mixers won’t be able to resist getting their hands on. Expect a revival of the lost art of the ‘remix album’ before you can say ‘Hot Chip’.

And Then We Saw Land is available now on Full Time Hobby.

Tunng’s website is here.

Tunng’s video for Hustle is there ↓