Minimal, post-punk duo Prinzhorn Dance School return after a healthy hiatus of several years. They’re still happy to expose the guts of their music, easy for the autopsy – crisp electric guitar, bass and drums, with the pair sharing vocal duties throughout.

Their 2008 debut, produced by James Murphy, was starker for sure. The production here sounds smoother – a more rounded affair. That’s not to say the gaps have been completely coloured in: just shaded. Young Marble Giants can still be a reference point.

Tracks like Usurper are still happy to jolt the listener into submission with their double-pronged, simultaneous twitch of bass and drums that tap like a hammer. Vocally it’s led by the male half of the band, Tobin Prinz – Suzi Horn joins intermittently within the staccato-stabbing chorus.

But Prinzhorn can fall delicately too. I Want You feels like we’ve discovered another touching point for The XX – the vocal-swapping/sharing flows rather than lashing out. The bass guitar drives twice as fast as the solitary bass-drum, both only look forward and onwards.

Sing Orderly has the voices entwined, more attitude and a great beat that rolls out the snare. Again there are more moments of isolation; it gets cold in here when the instruments stop and start so sharply, there’s no warm blanket of reverb either. Even the guitar solos are purposefully messy, just so we don’t get too comfortable.

Prinzhorn Dance School have returned with little compromise in tow, which was the right thing to do. If the critics couldn’t decide last time round (apparently the Guardian gave their debut two different star ratings last time round: the good and the bad) then it may well go the same way. As for us, we like it – maybe not as much as the debut – but we like it.

-Dave Taylor-