- Brisbane’s Witch Doctor has been messing around with downbeat, triphop and synthpop for a while now, but I think this EP may have nailed what they’re trying to do, harder than ever before. They slung a couple of singles at us, Chump The Millionaire and Boss Dog off an EP called Krum, last year. They were pretty cool, that aforementioned downbeat electronica, always letting you know just what you were listening to thanks to some quite strident turntablism. It was paired with a wistful white boy vocal that is a distant cousin of the androgynous r’n’b thing that’s exploded over the last few years, but is maybe closer to the sort of thing that Gruff Rhys and Boom Bip had going on together, or maybe even some of what Thom Yorke has been trying in the last few years. The boys themselves reference Shigeto’s quietly moody electronica as an influence, and, if nothing else, Witch Doctor would not sound out of place on Ghost Int’l’s diverse roster of quiet, electronic groovers.

If Krum was - in that way - a little out of place, then Popular Non-Violent is equally odd, but even more welcome. It’s opener, X’s & Y’s imbibes the self-medicating qualities of Krum except in much greater doses. Their vocalist(s) (I don’t know which one that is) mumble their way through pleasantly unintelligible verses, laying down upbeat wonky that pumps into a vocalise chorus that is actually quite beautiful.

Wonky downbeat gives way to a slamming snare and some cynical and sleazy triphop. Whoever those vocalists are, the highly processed carefully processed result on Waiting For The Green Light sounds like Beck Hansen at his most lugubriously country, but still with the electronic backing - does that make sense? Anyway, tick, also sounds great!

On the next track, Connections, the triphop murk gets even thicker, but a mechanical beat pushes the track forward inexorably. Dreamy vox lilt over the top and a twee xylophone bridge carries us back to that spine-tingling beat as the track slowly builds to an atmospheric climax of muted horror, with something like mutant wolf howls lurking in the background: good. Life On The B-List is finally Beck circa Odelay, in the verses anyway, but the florid chorus instead of Two Turn Tables gives you something that could easily be pulled from some gently psychedelic Primal Scream cut. The EP closes with its title track, and keeps experimenting with influences, with more energetic instrumental hip hop but this time married to a coda of ambient synth-pop; that’s not half a bad way to finish.

All of these sounds that were old are becoming new again, right now. Listening to this, I’m feeling like something special could be about to happen to this band and I like I should go and ask them if they want me to be their manager, not because I’d be any good, I just wanna jump on their coat tails, right now.This is a very impressive EP.

- Chris Cobcroft.