Much like their superbly onomatopoeic name, there's a delightfully compact brutality to this Norwegian super duo. The pugilistic title is a clue too as to the direction of the distressed and distorted duelling here, as they square up for an inspired bout of electro-percussive fisticuffs. While keyboard maverick Storløkken is a veteran of no less than 13 Supersilent albums and also exorcises his Hammond god alter-ego as a third of Nordic retro proggers Elephant9, Humcrush is where he really lets his considerable amount of hair down. Strønen too is better behaved with his Time Is A Blind Guide band and his ever-compelling Food (with Iain Ballamy), but here is swinging haymakers from the off. A duo album this may be, yet the wail of electro distortion on ‘The Beginning’ and the bustling crunch of the album title-track that follows, with strafing whip-cracks of sound – including a near sax-like bellow that emerges from the grime – make this sound like the work of at least three or four protagonists at once. If the spirit of early Zawinul wafts faintly into view then there's no doubting Storløkken's equally prodigious abilities at the keys, but this pair are a skull-crushing improv electro tag-team, not some cosy fusion duo. Each track contrasts appositely with the one preceding it, with the fragile crackle of ‘Flee’ tailed by the ferocious fuzz funk and jungle drums of ‘Trench’; the fragmented ‘Splinter’ collapsing into the liquid limp of ‘Sinking’. ‘Exit Humcrush’ closes out with a cathartic Theremin wail over a bed of swelling distorted chords. Their foes left vanquished, it's been a bruising triumph.