Metamorphosing musical styles via cover versions is hardly the most original trick in the book. Everyone from Metallica to Depeche Mode’s Martin L Gore has been at it in recent years.

Perennially overlooked Chicagans Silkworm, however, add their own unique angle, armed only with a mandolin, a guitar and their vocal chords.

When they strum acoustic chunks out of jilted anthem ‘Prayer To God’ – every non-Shellac fan’s fave Shellac tune – it’s without doubt an interesting experience. What the song loses in sonic potency without Steve Albini’s brutal delivery or caustic six-string damage is offset by an even more claustrophobic close-to-the-bone mood.

And the cries of “but him/just fucking kill him/I don’t care if it hurts/yes I do/I want it to/fucking kill him” are less angry catharsis and more murderous hick. Scary shit.

Plenty enough reasons already to own this EP then, but check the added oddities of a Pavement B-side ultra-countrified (‘And Then...’), plus reworkings of American alt icons Bedhead, Robbie Fulks and Nina Nastasia, for full benefits. Weird, wonderful and not a little worrying.