Swedish duo Niki & the Dove are following up their highly favoured EP, The Fox, with another sterling effort in the form of The Drummer. It once again gives the band an opportunity to showcase their talent for dismantling pop and creating something altogether more appealing, by showing us its flaws, its darker character, its scars.

The Knife are pretty much the standard by which Swedish alternative electronic bands are judged. And perhaps it’s unfortunate that Niki & the Dove skirt so close to the same sort of territory covered by Karin Dreijer Andersson and co, because they are destined to endure the comparisons. But they should probably look at it more as complement about the way they are able to experiment with the pop format and come out with something beautiful and eminently listenable at the end. They deserve standalone recognition and this seven track EP should take them a step closer to getting it.

Tracks like Mother Protect deserve multiple listens, if only to absorb the lush textures and depth of the soundscape created. It rolls along with a dark stripped down electro funk pop feel, before heading into something more epic. Manon, on the other hand, highlights the band’s fearless ability to create pop out of disparate elements with its skittering beats, throbbing bass and imaginative Kate Bush style vocals.

When the band said recently the EP was about a “wrestle at night”, we think you can take it they were talking about one of the mental variety rather than a spandex and baby oil throw-down. Or maybe they weren’t. Who knows? It’s good music to wrestle to.

The Drummer is out on October 18 and you can listen to the title track below.