Ultimate Painting's 2015 album Green Lanes was most notable for its transfixing and delicate guitar lines; their resemblance to the Velvet Underground's dreamy-bluesy fragility did not go unnoticed by fans. The relatively raucous "(I've Got the) Sanctioned Blues" even gave off a whiff of "I'm Waiting for My Man," though these tunes were no exercises in minimalism — subtle chord changes and careful harmonies made clear that the duo of Jack Cooper and James Hoare fancied themselves as singer-songwriters in the laid-back tradition exemplified in artists like Kurt Vile and Mac DeMarco.

But you can stream UP's new album, Dusk, now, and ascertain a much different influence. The rigidity and forward motion of the rhythm on hypnotic opener "Bills" is steeped wholesale in Neu!: motorik Krautrock at its most obsessive. The monomaniacal bassline and patiently disruptive drum breaks hint at more psychedelic odysseys to come. Indeed, "A Portrait of Jason" tries its hand at sun-poisoned soul, and "Lead the Way" spirals down the rabbit hole with its doomy piano curlicues. The charming raggedness of Green Lanes has been replaced by an overpowering confidence in the studio — these five tracks actually swagger in their mild way.

Dusk is out September 30 via Trouble in Mind.

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