Former Gondwana labelmates GoGo Penguin gave Mammal Hands an early leg-up, and the bands share a taste for minimalism and electronica, occupying a coolly structured corner of UK jazz. But while GoGo Penguin find ways to deepen a limited palette, and inch open dance-based grooves, Mammal Hands' roots in East Anglian folk clubs give them a more antic, liberated edge.

This fourth album is concise and varied, with Nick Smart's bass clarinet adding sometimes lugubrious and earthy texture to his usual sax. Producer George Atkins makes Jesse Barratt's cymbal sound-beds shimmer like sand under water, and aids the effects-laden swirl of ‘Riddle’, where the sax evokes a vortex then an urgent, fading signal, and English folk dance moves through the tune. Village halls, concert halls and clubs therefore fill Mammal Hands' hinterland, while Indian tabla patterns and Steve Reich both inspire cyclical passages. The rolling, shipboard sway of ‘Late Bloomer’, darkly tolling noir piano and darting sax of ‘Spiral Stair’ and sultry languor of ‘Floating World’ (suggesting The Band's Levon Helm to Nick Smart) add to the subtle diversity. Opener ‘Ithaca’'s inspiration by The Odyssey, and the sense in ‘Verses Shapes’ of Smart's sax introspectively gazing at some distant horizon then quickening pace towards it, suggest Mammal Hands' urge to journey out even if, like Odysseus or minimalism's set shapes, they must return. ‘Into Sparks’' blowsily 1980s pop sax and chaotic, junglist shards meanwhile show a will to simply break free. Spiritual jazz provides one emotional anchor, this mild-mannered band's musical friendship another. But their particular strengths are melodic warmth, and an inventive willingness to cast off from their own formula's rigid shore.