Arone Dyer and Aron Sanchez are the duo that make up Buke and Gass, and this fact is the simplest part of what makes up this band. Dyer plays a modified baritone ukelele (the “buke”), an instrument created out of necessity due to her suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome, and Sanchez plays his own creation, a combination of guitar and bass (the “Gass” – see!) born out of his work creating instruments for the frankly bafflingly popular Blue Man Group. The duo share percussion duties via foot pedals, and if you’ve managed to read all this without being overcome with crippling fear about the quality of the actual music, then bravo! You might actually be rewarded with something worthwhile….

Riposte, the band’s debut record, was originally released in the US back in October last year to relative acclaim (partly due to the unusual construction of Buke and Gass) and it’s finally secured a release here over six months later. It could loosely be described as being a kind of post-punk take on folk music, with remnants of bands such as The Ex mixing with the eastern European folk sounds of Beirut and DeVotchKa, and maybe a bit of tUnE-YarDs too.

Despite all this talk of instrument making and adapting, the strongest weapon at Buke and Gass’s disposal is the voice of Arone Dyer. Powerful and strident like Karen O’s, it leaps out from the music, mixing ecstatic yelps with gentler tones, and provides an anchor to the constantly changing rhythms of the ukelele and guitar/bass lines. Things come together best on some of the slower tracks, where there’s less changing of pace, such as ‘Immoral But Just Fine, Okay’ which builds around plucked uke and Dyer’s cooing vocals before an elastic “gass” riff adds a sinister element. The jazzy ‘Red Hood Came Home’ is similar in tone, spidery guitar lines allowing Dyer to showcase her vocals brilliantly before the chaos of a polka descends and takes the song to an entirely new place.

While some of the more upbeat numbers could benefit from a dose of Ritalin, there’s great fun in the likes of ‘Outt!!’ (“everybody here is out to get you / out to get you, out to get you, out to get you…”), ‘Bundletuck’ with its overtly sexual approach and lyrics – “these days you wake up in a bundle of orgasm” – and the propulsive opener ‘Medulla Oblongata’ (one of a few tracks that revels in a repetition of lyrics) in which the buke and gass combine to best effect. ‘Your Face Left Before You’ is also energetic fun and ‘Naked Cities’ thumps with percussive abandon. Great credit has to go to both Dyer and Sanchez for creating a record without too many obvious loops, which means they’re combining their playing of the stringed instruments alongside the foot-based percussion – and it does provide a naturalistic, instant feel to the record.

There are a few flaws to Riposte, with the album being a touch over-long and sagging in the middle, and the aforementioned tempo changes are hard to take in anything other than small doses. However, Dyer and Sanchez are two constantly inventive and creative artists – right down to the making of their own instruments - so you can forgive them the restless nature of some of the songs. If Buke and Gass add a little focus to future endeavours then a good record will surely become a great record.