Menomena made an underground splash with their cheaply-produced debut album I Am The Fun Blame Monster. Finding themselves hailed as one of the only truly original bands around, they made their way from Portland obscurity, via internet word of mouth, to many critics’ top ten lists.

Their new release is not so much a follow-up album, as a side-project. Menomena, like other cutting-edge alt-rock bands (such as Radiohead and Sigur Rós) before them, created the soundtrack for a modern dance performance. Entitled Under An Hour, Menomena's soundtrack to the three-part production by dance-troupe Monster Squad, is structured as three sprawling instrumental “tracks” - each written by a different member of the band, each between fifteen and twenty minutes in length.

Opening track Water is definitely the record’s most engaging. Beginning as a folksy repeated riff on a banjo, the music tickles and tantalises as it is joined by piano and - after a few minutes – delicate electric guitars which take up a variation on the main theme with a still-gentle but more driving force. The talented musicians of Menomena have fun with this post-classical adventure, exploring dynamic shifts in pace, mix and instrumentation. Meandering throughout the piece are digitally-reversed acoustic guitars, beautifully orchestrated strings, chimes and bells. Water is by turns urgent and lugubrious – sometimes creating a sense of forboding, other times soothing, with an ever shifting sense of drama and tension.

Flour is far less successful. Built around a constantly repeating, jaggedly emphatic horn and woodwind refrain, the piece sounds remarkably akin to many Michael Nyman film-scores – particularly his early soundtracks to Peter Greenaway films. Again, the arrangements and production are original and inventive. A solo theme taken up in turns by piano and baritone sax towards the middle is the track’s highlight, particularly when joined by the charismatic syncopation of a well-executed drum backing. But still, endlessly and monotonously, those horns and woodwinds stomp away, blaring out on three out of every four beats. The driving repition of these harsh sounds could be evocative and create a wonderful sense of momentum over a few minutes. Indeed, perhaps when they accompanied Monster Squad’s dance routines, they added to the rhythmic kinesis of the production. But over such a long track on a CD, they become simply grating and tedious.

The record’s finalé Light takes a good seven minutes to go anywhere. Atmospheric wailing on what sounds like a sitar, meanders around seemingly interminably. Finally, glitchy electronic percussion kicks in, but still doesn’t amount to much. Perhaps in an attempt to evoke the formlessness of Light itself, this piece remains completely void of structure or melody until its final five minutes. At long last, a gently menacing piano arrives and is joined by heavily-treated electric guitars and drums in a quite satisfying ending.

Overall, Under An Hour probably works best as background music. It’s one of those records to which the old cliché perfectly applies: I can appreciate it and admire it, but I can’t really enjoy it. There is simply a lack of emotional connection here. Though the composition shows enormous talent, the arrangements and production great imagination and finesse, the finished product simply fails to make the listener feel anything. In a live space, Menomena’s creations may have been the perfect backing to an avant-garde dance performance. In the humble music-lover’s lounge-room however, Under An Hour is an extremely accomplished achievement, but ultimately an alienating and cold experience.