Akoustik Anarkhy (Manchester club night and label) has always ploughed its own highly idiosyncratic and avowedly DIY-aesthetic furrow. Their latest signing its a buffalo (look: no apostrophe! all in lower case!) share some of their label’s shambolic willfulness and failings-are-our-strengths mentality. The Courteeners-endorsed four-piece deliver a countrified, lo-fi Mancunian pop with a rough charm and occasional maddening flaws. I THINK “Climb Climb” contains handclaps and female harmonies but you'd hardly know in the murky mix.

That said, there is much to recommend its a buffalo’s happy-sad vignettes of living an in-between existence: between dole life and drab office life, stuck in the arm chair or facing endless weekends. Life may be dull (and the sound sure ain’t pristine) but it is delivered with a sprightly vigour: “Broken Toy” tells of falling/failing in love in a nightclub to an uptempo pedal-steel stomp, “Outlines” is a breathless jangly romp – about life losing direction. It is a confident but unshowy collection that, despite its shortcomings might just win a broader audience over to its a buffalo’s chaotic jingle-jangle take on humdrum life. Maybe being Liam Fray’s favourite new band might actually work in their favour?!?