Album: Austra, Olympia (Domino)

Olympia, we're proudly told, may be heavily electronic but it's not programmed (everything was played live).

Strange, then, that it has no particular groove: it's as robotic as anything in Austra's back catalogue. Which isn't necessarily a problem. Nor is the fact that the Toronto sextet are not without precedents and peers in their field. Katie Stelmanis's emotionally tortured vibrato meshes with her band's lush textures to often-potent effect.