One of the problems with American Blog bands is that they seem to have the sell-by date of a bag of vegetables. From the moment Pitchfork has dug them up, they start to go off.

Not SLEIGH BELLS. Their album – released this week on MIA’s label (yes, I know! MIA has a label !?!?) – ‘Treats’ turns out to be surprisingly fresh. It is a proper piece of work, to whit, it’s not two Ok songs which were momentarily top of the Hype Machine chart and a load of old tat to pad it out.

There is some justification here for all the frothing and foaming praise which has surrounded them on the internet for the past nine months (especially in the wake of their CMJ appearance in New York last autumn).

‘Treats’ is a thoroughly modern record. I thought it was too stilted and awkward the first time I heard it; that it had the hallmarks of someone almost trying too hard to be artful and obtuse.

But actually this is one of the most forward-looking electro-guitar pop albums of the year (by turns it mixes Atari Teenage Riot with MIA, the Mary Chain and industrial hip-hop beats). It seems to constantly push you to the edge of your senses and then reels you back in. It wants to give you a headache and then sooth your brow.

Made by the duo Alexis Krauss and Derek E Miller, the latter the engineer and architect of the sound, it contains 11 tracks which never stand still. Pointedly it also has elements of the post hardcore scene Miller emerged from and even a hint of the fearlessness of Riot Grrl.

Best of all though it isn’t afraid to take a chance (which again is where 99 per cent of American Blog Rock really falls on its face and why I don’t get groups like Freelance Whales at all).

Sleigh Bells, although fixed within a self-imposed narrow sound, manage to twist it here, there and everywhere: from the jabbing Le Tigre-esque ‘Infinity Guitars’ to the beautifully subdued ‘Rill Rill’ (where Krauss’ vocals suddenly start to glow) and onto ‘Crown On The Ground’, a brilliant and blustery hip hop boxing anthem.

They topple over on only a couple of occasions (‘Straight As’, as wild as it sounds, isn’t as punk rock as it thinks it is and title track ‘Treats’ sounds almost as if they’ve worn themselves out). But this is a small price to pay when the competition is so rotten.

Sleigh hello at MySpace