Just six years old, Tokyo instrumental post-rockers LITE have proved themselves to be nothing if not prolific. Illuminate is their latest in a whole stack of miniature releases that have so far accompanied their two full-length albums. They also have three tours of Europe and a tour of West Coast America under their belts, so it comes as no surprise to find that they’ve emerged a stronger force than ever. Their last album Phantasia drew comparisons with early Russian Circles, Minus The Bear and Mono but such connections merely cheapened the simple appeal of their songs and their deliberately sparse construction. ‘Black And White’ was undoubtedly the stand-out track, drawing strength from its feisty, jazzy bass build and Hail Mary crashing cymbals, but there were plenty of weak points where a lightness of touch and lack of variety left them rather high and dry.

Having recorded Illuminate over two sessions, first in Chicago, then in Baltimore, the band have clearly spent a lot of time and money ironing out any frailties to get the record sounding bolder, more precise and ultimately, far more diverse. They’ve achieved this by bringing in a suitcase full of synth and a host of damaged keys. The rainfall backing tape and industrial click tracks on opener ‘Drops’ perfectly sets up their sudden shift into danceable electronica mirroring 65daysofstatic’s own side-step away from post-rock speculatling. The consequential added layers that they’ve discovered, within the manic electro-pop of ‘Image Game’ or the psychedelic jazz funk of ‘Andromeda’, is nothing short of staggering. Jun Izawa’s bass still rips through it all but it’s now pinpoint, clipped and precise and the best example of this is, without doubt, ’100 Million Rainbows’ – hearing it rise up on it’s haunches to plant bruising bottom-end and curious time-signatures over looped phasers is the equivalent of hearing Depeche Mode and Made Out Of Babies gang-rape Jean-Michelle Jarre’s entire back catalogue.

Sadly, an unhealthy dose of bizarre songwriting pops up to rock the boat a bit. Exhibit One: ‘The Sun Sank’ builds like a euphoric club anthem before missing a step and colliding with a drumkit and a xylophone – that’s the only way to describe it. Even the sudden morph into blissed-out space-rock cannot save it. Exhibit Two: ‘Tomato’ is like a glitter-suited hep-cat from the 70s emerging to a disco beat before strutting back and forth in vast flares and heels. Thankfully, the band find something a little more comfortable to wear in ‘Vermillion’ by combining an Earl Klugh-esque sweet acoustic riff with a shot of bass-loaded prog.

There’s no doubting that Illuminate is LITE’s own personal jigsaw puzzle. They clearly have all the right pieces now, so it’s just about fitting them in all the right places.