Esben and the Witch - A New Nature (Limited Edition) (2014)

The record, their third album, following last year's Wash The Sins Not Only The Face, and their second release of 2014 after a split with Thought Forms in April, marks something of a change of tact for the band. For starters, it's coming out via the band's own new imprint, Nostromo Records, following an amicable split with their previous label Matador. It's also been recorded by the well-worn, expert hands of Steve Albini, no less, at his Chicago studio Electrical Audio following a successful Pledge Music campaign earlier this year. Most significantly, it sees the band stripping back their sound and taking out a lot of the electronic matter, instead forging even more expansive songs (the album's centrepiece is the near-15-minute 'The Jungle') in raw, more live-feeling sonics. 'Blood Teachings' is a good case in point, with its Swans-esque heaving repetition providing a soundbed over which Rachel Davies unfurls a mesmeric vocal, not dissimilar to former Albini collaborator PJ Harvey, building to a razing, fuzzed crescendo. Say the band: "We wanted to create a record that had a level of purity to it. To strip away the layers and loops and see what lay beneath. To keep things naked, unadorned and raw. The three of us, in a room, making noise. We looked to create a more primal record, full of human emotion and sonic intensity. Drawing on themes of endurance, strength, determination and self-actualisation. Themes that have always inspired us but perhaps, only now, a few years down the line, a few years of touring under our belts, we feel we have the confidence and maturity to explore and shout about." They'll be debuting the new material live shortly after the album's release, playing Oslo in London on September 4.