There are a lot of odd contradictions to ute. They look like a set of awkward indie kids, yet they perform with breezy confidence and have a palpable sense of sinister wrongness to their music. Instruments-wise they seem pretty normal – drums, bass, guitar, vocals – but somehow they take these normal things and turn them strange. In the same way that the Young Knives used to, and still do from time to time, they seem a band that’s very knowing – confounding expectations again and again – and one that’s nailed, either by accident or by design, that all-too-rare combination of profoundly together songwriting and crazed, weird experiment.

So here’s The Gambler, their debut release on Alcopop! Records; five tracks that are yet another marker in a year that’s seem them swiftly pull together an ever-growing fanbase and solidify their sound into something that, where previously ramshackle, now seems something all their own. They’re a hard band to describe without slipping into meaningless lists – they’re a bit folk, a bit lo-fi, a bit Radiohead, a bit Tom Waits – but despite what seem a huge array of influences, not a mess. Running from the tender lullaby lyrics of ‘Brother’, with delicate melodies surrounding a sparse song construction, through to the pseudo-blues stomp of murder ballad ‘Innocent Tailor’, there are a number of common threads to these songs, and indeed ute’s wider output.

They’re very efficient. There’s not much, if anything, in these songs that doesn’t need to be there. The recordings are clean, and every sound has its place. They’re kind of restless. Songs have a tendency to dissolve into unexpected middle eights, switching tone and feel considerably. They have a near-mastery of drama. The final track ‘Bunker’ is the most Radiohead-esque, both in its strangulated lyrics and its furrowed-brow sense of seriousness in its explosions of frantic guitar strum. If there are criticisms to be levelled at ute, they might be that they lend themselves to this Radiohead comparison rather too frequently – but, to be fair, less so than earlier on in the band’s career. There’s also a slight hint of repetition in what’s pulled out of their bag of musical tricks over these songs. These criticisms are, though, forced. This is a band that’s going places, and hopefully Alcopop! Records can help expose them to a wider audience. If ute can keep their heads on straight and make sure that they don’t stop being weird, they’ll create some real magic in the future.

Go to Ute’s MySpace page. And then go to the Alcopop! Records website.