ALBUMS OF THE WEEK

Does it still count as a supergroup if it’s two people from the same family?

Tom and Ed Russell, brothers from the Welsh borders, are almost a decade apart in age and made their reputations in different corners of the dance world. Tom produced techno as Truss before the name acquired unfortunate connotations, while Ed was making rave and drum and bass, calling himself Tessela.

Since 2016 they’ve been united as Overmono, plenty of time to become known as remixers and formidable live performers before this debut album, which is clearly intended as their breakthrough to crossover success. They are closer to the mainstream than ever as the remixers of Ed Sheeran’s recent single, Eyes Closed.

Throughout Good Lies, voices, usually female, provide human warmth and melody, but are also cloaked in so much digital alteration that lyrics are frequently indecipherable, giving an alien strangeness to the music.

There are echoes of the haunting style of Burial, and though there’s enough catchiness here to avoid sounding as cold and nocturnal as him, Overmono consistently avoid the obvious move. The beats, constructed through what the brothers have described as an incredibly painstaking process involving lifting and processing each individual drum sound from a different place, never do the build-and-release thing so common in dance music. Songs tend to vanish long before they’ve done anything you might have been expecting.

It can make their sound hard to cling on to but it’s an intoxicating style that reveals itself gradually and allows them to stand alone.