Copenhagen-based Jacob Skott is the man behind Syntaks. The Dane has previously worked alongside Jonas Munk (Manual), hence his unsurprising affinity for Shoegaze prescient on this new release, Ylajali.

The album starts well on Twentytwohundred; built on an unnerving bed of breathy female vocals and sledgehammer percussion, yet highlighted by its sumptuously melodic, thickly padded keyboard sounds.

Love Camp 23, meanwhile, displays Skott’s influences; its bulky, well-spaced ethereal melody pads very much in the same league as Ulrich Schnauss – dare I say a tad contrived.

Phantasmogoria changes tack, introducing a wavering Honky Tonk piano amidst slowed, cumbersome breaks. Anna Cecilia’s wandering vocal sighs are seamlessly mixed into the track’s plethora of enigmatic guitar feedback. They also erupt on Mistral Moon, adding a mysterious layer of humanity to its similarly dense mix of chiming melodies and slow beats.

Elsewhere, She Moves In Colors is perhaps more ambitious, and more in-line with the traditional Shoegaze ‘sound’, wandering with Gregorian etherealism, before Rasmus Rasmussen’s glistening guitar chords join in to culminate in a messy crescendo of white noise.

What’s for sure is that everything on Ylajali is emblazoned in reams of reverb and delay, which adds a somewhat impenetrable cloudy haze. Sometimes this works, but equally there’s often a lack of clarity in the mix. Although clearly intentional, Ylajali does sound a bit too leaden at times. The Shape Of Things To Come’s thick carpet of distortion is particularly indistinct – some might say badly produced - rendering the track almost unlistenable.

Overall, a decent effort that never reaches the grandiose heights of Skott’s luminaries – Ylajali is perhaps a little too bittersweet on both sides of the spectrum.