Every once in a while I hear a record that’s so out there, I can’t help but fall in love with it. The latest example comes from Yorkshire pair Spook Muziek and JMS.

By Graeme Smith

The title of the opening track of their new EP, Spook Muziek vs JMS, tells you all you need to know. Live laugh love eat shit die is a bold an uncompromising number, combining vibrant electronica, an infectious groove and call and response vocals. An undercurrent of nihilism runs through its party soundtrack sound. I was instantly hooked.

Spook Muziek describes himself as “Sheffield’s answer to Alex Turner” and it’s that kind of tongue-in-cheek humour that makes his and JMS’s work so charming. The pair don’t take themselves seriously, but can put together a serious tune. All three tracks on their new EP are bangers.

Boyfriend girlfriend is a hand-clapped fuelled heavy number that deploys spadefuls of irony while our love is a riot! takes things downtempo with a long, lingering dance number full of sultry swagger. It completes the story of a relationship in which the two are as much rivals as they are lovers. It’s a story that eschews the TV and social media fuelled idea of the perfect relationship, and rather exults in the authenticity of true, filthy romance.

The fact that Spook Muziek and JMS hail from our fair Yorkshire is merely the icing on the cake of a fun and innovative EP that is up there with some of the best music I’ve heard this year. I simply cannot recommend Spook Muziek vs JMS enough.

Spook Muziek vs JMS was written during an “intense and passionate” writing session that took place “over five or six years,” and was recorded and produced at Spook HQ. The EP is out now and you can give it a listen below.