Forget everything you know about Hookworms. Ok, maybe not everything; the urgency and viscera both live and on record that led the Yorkshire-based five-piece to prominence across two blistering full-length LPs - 2013’s Pearl Mystic and 2014 follow-up The Hum - remains. However, as they return with their much-anticipated third record Microshift, the title of the record connotates more than just the intended nod to the audio plug-in their vocalist MJ regularly uses; it could also be an understatement of a three-year narrative that’s brought about changing circumstances, influences and subsequent evolution.

Microshift is a record that largely pulls back the dense fug of guitars and Modern Lovers-esque blasts of organ that have become Hookworms’ hallmark, replaced instead by a plethora of electronics and synthesizers. New variants on their use of motorik sees drummer JN working around drum machines on many of the tracks, while an increased focus on melody is most notable in MJ’s vocal delivery, now shorn of the Space Echo that drenched it previously. “After eight years of being a band we couldn’t just make another psych rock record” says the group’s MB.