The origin and current story of Buke & Gase is a curious one. The duo, Arone Dyer and Aron Sanchez, started off jamming with their own homemade instruments, the baritone/ukulele and the guitar/bass hybrid being their go-to creations and the catalyst for the Brooklyn band’s name. Still improvising and jamming to create their songs, the band are now on their third LP Scholars.

The album starts off strong with Stumbler, a dark slow burner with low bass sounds and gritty guitars, excuse me… gritty gases, building atmospherically in a mesh of electronic sequences to drop to a gorgeous Imogen Heap vocoder-style bridge. With four notable section changes throughout the song it plays like a concept piece. While retaining this hardy sound the highlights on the album come when the band take on a more pop sensibility, letting singer Arone Dyer’s high-range melodies act as the dynamic to offset the raw but enjoyable clatter of the homemade instruments and heavy bass drums – particularly in the songs Derby and Pink Boots.

The promising start, sad to say, doesn’t continue as you get to the mid-point of the album. Even with the same ingredients used in the previous tracks there is a drop in the quality of the content as the beats lag and the vocals can be found too repetitive and lacking in colour.

When dealing with the unexciting second half of the record, the attention is drawn to the fact that Scholars is a touch on the long side, with twelve tracks. One would imagine that a solid nine track album would have been a more sensible option: a few impressive openers and the odd pardon could be made in the name of album fillers. Regardless of the second leg lull, Scholars is an album of some great hooks and impressively original content, it is just a shame it brings you on a steady descent into a lukewarm ending.