Minuit: The 88

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * *)

As the cover helpfully reminds us, it's pronounced "Min-wee". But funnily enough, much of the charm and character to the Nelson dance-pop trio's debut is down to singer Ruth Carr's own excitedly mangled diction. She can certainly find syllables and inflections that you hadn't suspected existed in certain words in her scattershot delivery among the 14 tracks, an impressive set which mixes melodic song-power with dancefloor vigour.

Add Carr's loopy word-game lyrics over spiky electronics and pneumatic breakbeats and The 88 turns out to be something infectious. That's whether it's referencing Prince's Sign O the Times on Claire, taking some Lothario to task on Menace, or putting equal amounts of electro-throb and heartache into Except You.

The knob-twiddling may get the better of the songs in the second half, but it's a tautly paced affair, peaking on the synthesiser fireworks of Body Shaped Box before gliding to its end. It's easily filed between Bjork's more aerobic offerings, or the solo efforts by Massive Attack/Tricky singers like Nicolette and Martina Topley Bird. It's also a local dance album that has something many others studiously avoid - a sense of personality.

Label: Tardus