The cover artist has the right idea, producing something colourful yet spooky, a rough guide to the way this record works. Not all the spectres parade in such a straight line, however, as the beats Bischoff brings to the table scatter themselves around the spacious textures, sometimes barely propping up the flailing melodic strands while other times offering rock solid support.

This happens in Last And Least Likely, which starts out with intent with a hammering riff, before subsiding to a vocal not too far removed from Thom Yorke.

This isn't a record, mind, that screams derivative at the listener. It's a daring piece of work by and large, one in which the producer takes risks but knows, mostly, when not to push things too far. It's tempting to think Brian Eno would approve of the serene calm with which All We Know begins, floating in space with its weird, disembodied vocal, while Children's Song takes a more conventional pair of riffs as its basis before chewing them up in a psychedelic wave of noise.

Ribbons has an uncanny knack of bringing together seemingly disparate elements of melody and atmospherics to make a far greater whole, and in the most part this is a success. Where it isn't there is always a particular sonority or lyric to latch on too, although just occasionally the listener might feel too weirded out to continue. All I Was offers consoliation to this as the album's closer, its weird, disembodied choir drifting away with an improvisatory guitar.

What always comes across is the way Bischoff imbues this record with a spirit of adventure, and if you're able to invest more than a few listens, the rewards are potentially handsome.

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Mercury Prize 2009 nominees