The band are advocates of the idea that the live show and the album are two separate art forms; they want to keep their drum and bass minimalism for the live arena while delivering much rounder, more fleshed out songs in their recorded ventures. On each track, synths, guitars, additional vocals and other kinds of studio treats are used to enhance and decorate songs which can, and will, be thumped out live in a rather primal manner. It's important to point out that this never steps beyond embellishment or infringes upon the crux of Big Business which is their force and energy brought through hardcore bass and drum jamz.

They seem all at once at home with making music that is powerful, energetic and fast (the rather rowdy 'Shields') or slow, very heavy and commanding ('I’ll Give You Something to Cry About') or even ambient album closer 'Another Beautiful Day in the Pacific North West'. One common theme of the songs, with the exception of the last (it’s a wee bit of a drone track), is that each covers a massive variety in sound and style in itself. It becomes apparent why these 8 songs last so long when you realise the amount of ideas coming through in every second of what you hear in a way that makes it hard to believe that song lasted 9 minutes; there is a distinct lack of over indulgence despite keeping things going so long.

All in all this album was pretty impressive on me. Showing signs of improvement, like a more developed ability to flesh out tunes, while still rocking a fresh batch of hot stuff and still bringing it with the same consistency. I'd give this an 8.5 on the 10-point scale we all know and love.

Alistair Clark