"Big Black Coat", the Junior Boys' first new material since their 2011 album It's All True, presents a side of the duo that we've rarely heard before. Having soaked up the influence of Detroit techno at its most severe, they sound almost tough.

They're still no bruisers; you'll never confuse them with someone like Blawan. There's always been a chilly fragility at the heart of their music, and the same is true here, where Jeremy Greenspan's aching falsetto dissolves into jellied delay, and wistful chords touch down with the weight of a sigh.-=-=-=-

But "Big Black Coat" isn't all so pliant; informed by the Detroit legend Robert Hood's skeletal constructions, it brandishes diamond-tipped hi-hats and tensile plucked synths, and metallic accents round out its bristly staccato skin. Beneath it all, fluid bass notes extend like the sinewy limbs of a beast ready to pounce—even though it never quite does, preferring finally to curl up once more into a cozy ball. This is Junior Boys we're talking about, after all.