Nina Walsh’s new E.P., Maximum Vaultage, brings together three very different tunes. Protect The Innocent is an exercise in eccentric electro. Bumping and chugging to a machined kick and quick conga percussion fills, it’s a little like New Order, if New Order did Men Without Hats’ Safety Dance. Synth pop? Most certainly, but seemingly simple, it’s actually deceptively detailed. Surreptitiously stuffed with filtered snares and morphing melodic whistles and chimes, akin to Chris & Cosey’s sensual, plugged-in psychedelia. Don’t let the hook – two sirens singing to each other in noisy call-and-response – throw you off.

Vellichor is synthesised from a snippet of violin and flute, that sounds like it was borrowed / bitten / rescued from a Smithsonian collection of field recorded American folk. The repurposed  jig looped into a gradually evolving grin-inducing groove. A jumping, jiving mutant jazz, that’s Theo Parrish versus Simon Jeffes’ Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Moodymann re-editing, finding the funk in, Anthony Moore. A persistent electrical buzzing peppers the piece. As the mighty Mad Professor once warned, you’ve got to “Watch those dodgy contacts.”

Levene is named after Public Image Limited’s original, genius guitarist, Keith, and takes its inspirational cues from the band’s seminal track, Radio 4. Nina’s Jupiter synth drones aping a bowed cello, and combined with twisting trebly sine waves, creating a near classical, computerised chamber music. Cinematic, like Brian Eno’s Music For Films, it’s sort of dark but still borders on a strange, serene beauty.

Woodleigh Research Facility’s Maximum Vaultage Volume 1 can be ordered directly from Bandcamp.