Oxford duo Rainbow Shark are men of very few words, that much is clear. We know at least one of multi-instrumentalist Jack Levy and guitarist Bill Wright hail from Manchester and we know their eponymous debut was recorded at the 80 Hertz; the Manchester studio favoured by acts as diverse as Rae Morris, Stealing Sheep, Wiley and Chase & Status. That’s about it. But who needs flashy, egocentric copy when the music sounds this good? Opening gambit, ‘Behind The Shards’ introduces us to the duo’s penchant for sprawling layers of reverb laden guitar. We’re taken aback by the gorgeous syncopated bass riff which punctuates the bridge in the dreamy ‘Sundown Bears’, a track which also features the lyric, ‘Find me here, find me here/In technicolour glow’ – if only we could, you elusive sods. Finale ‘Killer Sharks’ glistens with guitar and snare repetitions and looping piano chords. This is smart, sensitive pop music with a 3am club twist; you can’t help but feel as though Jack and Bill could place some much needed warmth and flesh on the skeletal frame of The xx’s sophomore effort Coexist.

Rainbow Shark HQ is characteristically quiet at the moment with Jack seemingly working his way around South America, although a new track, ‘After The Rain’, surfaced on their Soundcloud page at the start of September. We quickly found ourselves addicted to it’s choppy basslines and sleek vocals that simmer like sweet runny caramel but the duo obviously knew they’d leaked an absolute diamond all too soon and removed the track this past weekend. We’re crossing all our digits in the hope that it makes its way onto the EP ahead of the Christmastime release; it’d be a delight to add those dubby Joy Orbison breaks to our record collection.