Frosty electro sounds and weighty piano get things in motion on opening track Glitter Recession, seeming to set the stage for an ambient workout. What follows though doesn’t always quite fit with that – William Doyle’s debut release under the East India Youth moniker shows an artist finding his feet, as the record veers from crystalline digital sounds to more fluid textures. While those shifts in tone could be jarring, Doyle mostly manages to avoid shocking.

From the title track, split in four parts across the album, with its disjointed, disquieting slivers of sound, to the euphoric uplift of Heaven, How Long, Doyle brings a hard-edged touch to tunes that could be slight in other hands.

With the beats layering on the tension until an upfront synth figure breaks through, Hinterland would stand up on any amped up weekend night. It’s a darkly effective tune that stands out as inventive and sharp, if a little out of place.

Those title tracks, parts I-IV, share a woozy sort of style, but take a different tack each time. Placed as a sort of thread through the album, they work as links to chain the different parts together, a kind of ground around which the rest fits. As Total Strife Forever II opens up, its droning synth and layered vocals seems to be building to something that never quite arrives.

What it does do though is set up Looking For Someone, probably the closest thing to a straight-up pop song on the record. Between the organ sounds laying a bed of classic synth-pop to the repeated vocal hook, it’s a finely crafted example of what East India Youth is capable of.

Back in instrumental territory, Midnight Koto is a wash of shimmering tones, speculative stabs breaking in on the gently shifting ground. Total Strife Forever III sticks to the same formula, low wobbles from the synth give it an otherworldly air as the sound thickens and fills out.

Song For a Granular Piano edges things towards an end with its mix of sparse piano and hushed vocals, the last tones gradually disintegrating to a static fuzz, before Total Strife Forever returns one last time in a haze of overlaid sound.

The shifts in tone can be unexpected, but East India Youth has managed to keep it coherent, coming up with a slick debut record that has plenty to recommend it.