Because I don’t always have the ability to blue-sky think my way around situations, for a while I had Phantom Theory lined up alongside bands like Oxes. In my mind they were a fractured post-rock-chunka-chunka-noise kind of band. Albeit one that had vocals in the mix.

That was never really right, though. They’re simultaneously simpler and more complicated than that. Simpler, because their songs are shorter, tighter and more traditional in structure. Out with fiddly time signatures, in with the refreshing feel of a concrete slab of guitar fuzz in the face, a la Winnebago Deal, Lafaro, Queens Of The Stone Age and so on. Complicated, because they do strange, unexpected things to veer off the traditional rock path from time to time.

There are three studio-recorded songs on ‘Delayed And Decayed’, along with a live recording and a remix from Gunning For Tamar. These three songs unveil some of these unexpected things as they go by. ‘Tone of the Dead’ sets the scene for a straightforward two-piece hard rock band, it’s fast-paced and tightly arranged slice of taut, noisy guitar music, and one that benefits from its smash’n’grab feel – just as it starts to become familiar, it’s over. ‘Phil Collins vs. the World’, however, goes slightly faux-emo initially, before introducing – via guitar squeal interludes – a sudden barrage of twisty-turny melody that’s just fantastic. Then – well, then, a quiet bit; a subtle bit. It’s like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ compressed into 209 seconds, as covered by angry plaid-shirted hipsters. ‘A Long List of Methods for Evading Black Hand’ goes a bit Glitter Band-stomp on us, clomping around like a moody child before breaking out into some top-off-sit-on-my-shoulders-at-a-festival guitar heroics. Then, back to the clomp. Clomp clomp clomp.

The live recording of ‘Shotguns And Sharks’, somewhat muted though it is, confirms that Phantom Theory can whip this stuff out in a live context, and do it super-nicely, with a firm grip on tone and texture. Finally, the remix of ‘Trancedog’ takes us on a little electronica trip that’s a bit IDM, a bit Italo. It’s a great reworking, with vocal snippets sprinkled across an increasingly hectic electronic background, the original song’s stutters and melodies reworked into a smoother, synthier sound.

Download ‘Delayed And Decayed’ for free here. Alternatively, here’s the Phantom Theory website.