(DFA/EMI) ***

OPERATING on the borders of irritation, PDS take a minimalist approach and then strip it back a bit, rendering their songs' as bass and drum-backed sonic sketches.

Tobin and Suzi met in Brighton, but namecheck a random host of British places and pursuits observed with an eye that's part Alan Bennett, part Vic Reeves, part Eddie Argos.

There's the deadpan hilarity of Hamworthy Sports and Leisure Centre (yes really, where a five-piece soul band is appearing tonight); and the pointed asides of Don't Talk to Strangers in which PDS account for their absence from MySpace with its population of "sticky-beaks and flappy-mouths". Inspired!

For all the good bits though, there are long passages that really challenge your capacity to take it.