Since their self-titled debut in 2008, Remember Remember have been one of the UK’s most effective advertisements for the loop pedal. Glaswegian main man Graeme Ronald, who recorded most of the band’s first album alone, is a master of the pot-stirring school of songwriting, each RR track starting with a simple looped melody and gloriously unfurling over time as new ingredients are folded into the sonic stew. It makes for remarkably transparent music; the listener is able to make out the whirring inner machinery of the tracks, each layer of a song completely visible. But it’s also a style that Ronald and RR have managed, over the course of a debut album and last year’s EP, to imbue with an incredible sense of romance, mixing the grandeur of post-rock with elements of ambient minimalism and elegant orchestration. Throughout, the repetitive melodies and tones cast a trance-inducing spell as they cycle over and over, like a mantra.

Second LP The Quickening sees Ronald and his band return to the same pot-stirring formula, albeit with a fistful of new ingredients to throw into the mix. The shift to a more traditional band setup gives The Quickening a less artificial feel than its predecessor, with tracks sounding more like they’ve rolled out of extended jam sessions than been meticulously arranged. Nine-minute epic ‘Ocean Potion’ is certainly the most unpredictable RR concoction to date, its Appalachian guitar lines meandering through waves of electronics that pitch and roll seemingly of their own accord, like Fleet Foxes played through Aphex Twin’s ambient speakers. Indeed, the link to the former is pretty clear in the song, as its recurring melody is pinched virtually wholesale from Fleet Foxes track ‘Blue Ridge Mountains’, but it’s hard to criticise one unoriginal sequence when the track, taken as a whole, creates its own distinctive, undulating atmosphere.

Elsewhere, The Quickening exhibits a darker side than we’ve seen of Remember Remember before. The twitchy rhythm section and razor-sharp strings of ‘Hey Zeus’ radiate a restless unease; a departure for a group that has previously tended towards musical harmony. The same goes for ‘Unclean Powers’, which combines woodwind straight out of The Wicker Man with the band’s most assertive guitar riffs to date to create a sinister energy that recalls the darker moments of the band’s Rock Action label bosses Mogwai. Even initially chirpy closer ‘John Candy’ is interrupted by bad vibes halfway through as melancholy electronics briefly cast a cloud over the song’s sunny sky.

Still, the wistful beauty and gorgeous instrumentation heard on the band’s debut is well enough represented here to satisfy the most ardent optimist. ‘Scottish Widows’ and ‘One Happier’ both lead with blue-eyed piano parts, the former swept away by a flight of strings, the latter topped off with an intricate finger-plucked solo by guest guitarist RM Hubbert. Remember Remember might not have revolutionised their style with The Quickening, but based on this evidence they’ve little reason to. With only two full-length records under their collective belt, Ronald and his cohorts have effortlessly established their modus operandi, an ambitious mix of detailed song structure and freewheeling experimentalism. But above all, the melodies reign supreme and it’s the melodies you’ll come back for, time and again.