Adding extra roots to their sound, Up, Bustle and Out's latest incarnation bursts with energy and sophistication.
This is their sixth album and the first not to be released through the Ninja label - instead arriving via Germany's diverse Unique label.
From the first interplay between rim shot and bass on the dub dance hall hip hop of 'Dig It, Don't Mess With It', this reverberates with the distinctive club crossover sounds that have historically underpinned the creativity of the UK's dance music.
Naturally this is a hybrid of experimental sounds, but, like the music that burst out of Coventry and North London in the late Seventies, there's nothing manufactured or forced in here.
Jim Barr's double bass or Cuffy 'El Guapo's Flamenco guitar, for example, sound like additions that happened to occur because they were living next door, rather than being conspicuously bolted onto the proceedings in the name of 'fusion'.
And the comparison with two tone runs deeper, as 'Hooded Hordes' replays The Specials classic 'Ghost Town', layering jazz elements via Andy Hagues horn riffs, jumped up dub percussion from Senora Eugenia Ledesma while Ras Jabulani and Jamaican DJ Mexican update Terry Hall's vision of inner city dereliction.
Meanwhile the instrumentation and samples are spiralled through Lee Scratch Perry/ King Tubby inspired delays and effects - an indulgence that is given full reign on the following 'Hooded Hordes' dub version.
The surprise in this album is how deep UBO can go without sounding in any way like a pastiche.
'Urban Evacuation' is an explosion of pure roots that expertly casts the shadow of an early Eighties London warehouse jam or blues party.
Essential new year roots business. Yessir.
