The Ting Tings

We Started Nothing appeared in 2008, including Great DJ, That's Not My Name and Shut Up and Let Me Go. Guitar, drums, electronic parts and vocal responses were arranged for maximum definition rather than a dense band sound. The songs could be playful without becoming vague, with White's timing giving the repeated words a continually changing emphasis.

That's Not My Name makes a mistaken identity into the centre of an increasingly insistent performance. Shut Up and Let Me Go has a different rhythmic character, with a clipped guitar figure and a more obviously danceable instrumental conversation. The contrast helped make the debut a collection of distinct songs even when the basic musical vocabulary remained deliberately limited.

Sounds from Nowheresville arrived in 2012, including Hang It Up. The record changed the production balance and allowed the duo to move away from the precise commercial shape of the first singles. Super Critical followed in 2014, with Wrong Club and Do It Again placing a more explicit disco and funk interest at the centre of the arrangement.

The later changes reveal an enduring preference for a groove with a very clear vocal character inside it. The Ting Tings do not need a large number of instruments to establish that character; a bass movement, a handclap or the sudden absence of a part can change the whole performance. Their strongest tracks make simplicity sound deliberate, with the repeated phrase gaining meaning from exactly what happens around it.