This north-east duo conjure up a rare kind of alchemy as they skip gleefully between trip-hop and dream-pop. Sam Nixx takes most of the vocal duties (she nails everything thrown at her here) and Conrad McQueen provides that all-important and enticing latticework of beats and slinky rhythms. From beautiful ballads (the divine ‘U-Bahn’ is rapturous) to the Tricky-esque (‘Coat Check Girl’) to moody cinematics (‘Mourning Café’) they’ve got it going on. They even add a touch of Americana to the mix (‘November Song’) and pull it off with aplomb. GM

Released 1 October on Butterfly Effect