[1] It features the likes of Nick Hemming from The Leisure Society on banjo and mandolin, Mike Siddell from Hope of the States and Lightspeed Champion on the violin and Will Calderbank from The Miserable Rich on the cello.
In 2009 the band played several high-profile London shows: the Royal Festival Hall with Laura Marling, the Barbican with Jaga Jazzist and Efterklang with the Britten Sinfonia, the Union Chapel with The Leisure Society and The Roundhouse, performing a live score for Antonin Artaud's La Coquille et le clergyman.
Critics noted a marked departure from the debut, exploring and combining a wider array of genres,[12] especially the "influence of Chicago's avant-garde rock and jazz scene and guitarists such as former Slint-man David Pajo in particular".
[14] The album marked another change in style - after hearing the new material at Green Man Festival, Kathryn Bromwich of The Observer wrote, "In the front: two girls doing Cocteau Twins-like ethereal vocals and faultlessly choreographed dance moves, occasionally breaking off for a drum or clarinet solo.
"[15] The Quietus described the new material as "a defiantly electric brand of muscular jazz-rock that recalls the acceptable face of early seventies prog; Soft Machine, later Traffic and the 'Rock In Opposition' movement, somewhere between Henry Cow and Magma.