Let’s talk about evolution for a second. As times change, organisms must adapt. These tiny adaptations build up over eons to create totally new lifeforms.

Musically though, that happens on a much smaller scale. A Mesazoic worth of evolution might happen in a decade, with primitive genres becoming more advanced and converging to form antecedents that bear little resemblance to their forebears.

But just as some lifeforms perpetuate for millions of years without much variation, some genres were perfectly adapted from their conception. Take for instance post punk, which has swum on the last few decades like a shark: its unblinking gaze, jagged teeth, and menacing presence as fit a metaphor for the sounds of the genre as any I can think of.

Manchester post punkers IST IST understand this, offering an album that delivers a brand of icy post punk that’s as close to the scene’s origins as any I’ve heard in the last few years.

I’m not sure Joy Division (also from Manchester) had any intentions of establishing one of the most enduring musical movements in recorded history. Their brooding bass lines, mechanical drum lines, dour vocals, and stabbing guitars were largely the result of not knowing any better—or, in Bernard Sumner’s case, because he couldn’t hear his guitar otherwise. But their short career spawned clades of followers, even though they were stretching beyond that monochromatic palette even before they became New Order. While there were scores of contemporaries who have been influential in their own right (read: The Cure, The Smiths, Bauhaus, etc.), Joy Division’s stark gloom remains the Platonic ideal of that sound.

It’s one thing to mechanically ape these conventions to create something that passes for post punk. It’s quite another to inhabit them and have them form your musical DNA. IST IST is certainly the latter, no doubt aided by the influence of growing up in the same city as Joy Division. The brooding soundscapes resemble the prior group in their essence without sounding like any specific song. It also helps that the vocalist sounds just like Ian Curtis. This record feels like Joy Division in a way that makes you realize how much the first couple Interpol records sounded like Joy Division as well.

Of course, sounding just like someone else can only take a band so far. Luckily, IST IST has the conviction and authenticity to avoid feeling like a cheap copy of Unknown Pleasures. The guitars are fuller than a lot of their contemporaries without overpowering the rhythm section. The heavy use of keyboards adds some fullness to the sound that a lot of post punk misses. There’s an urgency to tracks like “Stamp You Out” and “Trapdoors” that can’t be faked. However, a few tracks are more delicate—even romantic, like “Nothing More Nothing Less” or “Mary in the Black and White Room,” which practically bounces with inviting synth pads. “Artefacts” is a proper ballad, with minimal accompaniment besides a piano.

This is one of those records that gets under your skin. I first heard it when I reviewed it back in March. Often, if I don’t buy something immediately, I don’t buy it at all. However, it kept bubbling back into my attention until I couldn’t resist it anymore. And as a big fan of post punk, this is sure to be in regular rotation on my turntable.