If you put on Telepathe’s 2006 Farewell Forest EP you may be too terrified to read on.

With layers of Bjork-esque screeches, its four frighteningly compelling tracks managed to conjure the noises of your worst nightmare. But, if you got through that, you’ll be happy to hear that their new material, including the future club hit ‘Chromes On It’, is far more euphoric.

Melissa ‘Mean Masha’ and Busy Gangnes are the two hard-faced members of Telepathe who peer suspiciously from beneath their fringes and deck themselves in multi-patterned vests and bright nylon caps. They met five years ago in their previous band Wikkid but yearned to break out on their own. “We wanted to have a lot more control over the music and branch out,” says Melissa. “To make beats and melodies and sing and record over them. We wanted to do it all.”

Hailing from Brooklyn, and slipping into the same stream of avant-garde pop as Gang Gang Dance and Animal Collective, Telepathe are named after pet communicators and draw influence from old house, techno and hip-hop, as well as dance choreography. “That’s influenced me in the way I try out weird, unconventional ideas,” says Melissa.

Telepathe have already recorded their debut album with TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek, which is due for release before the end of the year. In the meantime, they’re playing as many live shows as physically possible: “If someone calls up and says, ‘Hey can you play this party at my house?’ we’ll show up.”

The band may carry a nonchalant air about them but Telepathe are putting their all in, and their backdated get-up is nothing to base their music on. “We’re not about being retro or taking from a specific era,” reckons Melissa. “We try to think about our music as being futuristic, and if a track makes us feel like dancing, it’s a keeper.”

Danielle Goldstein