Synkoke is a Norwegian quintet (keyboardist Kristian Harnes, saxophonist/vocalist Erik Nerheim, bassist Ellen Andrea Wang, drummer Kurt André Aase and guitarist Ole Ådland) that plays in a style they themselves refer to as ‘punked prog-jazz’.

This churning, thrashing, full-on approach has a pedigree going back to Last Exit and continuing through to contemporary bands such as Trio VD or Troyka, and Synkoke’s roiling, cacophonous overall sound often resembles that of another so-called ‘punk jazz’ outfit, Led Bib, filtered through a heavy-metal outfit such as Metallica, or even Slipknot.

Alternating between a fierce scrabble (which occasionally, courtesy of its sheer unpredictability and oddly earnest eccentricity, calls that mysteriously neglected UK band Cardiacs to mind) and a mesmeric gloomy clangour that would serve as a perfect soundtrack for a Roger Corman Poe film, The Ideologist is not for the faint-hearted, but will delight admirers of any of the above-named bands, and anyone who enjoys no-holds-barred, utterly committed collectively produced music. The band’s name means ‘boil together’ and (as anyone who witnessed any of their gigs with World Service Project last autumn will attest) it’s an extremely apt label for what their website calls their ‘aggressive, energetic … jagged music’.