1996 surely stands as a definitive year for Lamb. Despite hailing from Manchester, the duo’s self-titled debut shared a kinship with Bristol’s brooding game-changers Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky. Setting the brittle, affecting voice of Lou Rhodes against the synths and samplers of Andy Barlow, the album was something to savour. It also heralded the most enduring of all their songs, Górecki. 15 years have passed since then, but 2011 feels like another turning point in the story of Lamb.

This is a band with some catching up to do. After the release of fourth album Between Darkness and Wonder in 2003, Rhodes and Barlow gradually became consumed with their solo careers. Five years passed without much except a greatest hits compilation for Lamb loyalists. Then, in 2009, the pair announced a short itinerary of ‘reunion’ shows. Seven dates ballooned into over 30, with the final stops happening here in Australia.

Then all went quiet again – until December 2010, when Lamb announced a comeback album 5 will be released on ‘5th 5th 2011’. All which brings us to the latest chapter for the two long-time collaborators. Not only is there a new album, but also the far-reaching ‘5 World Tour’. This time, Australia is the first port of call.

Far from struggling to find their spark after the years away from Lamb, Rhodes and Barlow relished the studio process this time. From their calm and thoughtful voices down the line to inthemix, you don’t get the sense 5 had a fraught gestation.

“We started in September [2010] and we’re in January and it’s nearly finished,” says Rhodes softly. “That’s quite something. It’s quite different for both of us, but we really enjoyed the intensity of it. Stuff really seems to flow, thank god.”

So, have they found themselves returning to the production techniques of old? “I think it has come full circle in some ways,” replies Rhodes, before deferring to Barlow, the guru of the machines. “I’m so used to being in the studio, I don’t really have to think of the technical side,” he muses. “We just get in and the ideas flow out when we’re in front of the machines. It’s become a subconscious process. I was still really young when Lamb started so there was a lot of manual readings and tape machines going wrong and the floppy disc stops working. We’re a lot more ready for the ideas when they come now.”

While the ‘trip hop’ tag has followed Lamb throughout their career, Rhodes believes the music they make is still of its own kind. “Back in the day, people were talking about we fit into trip hop, or the drum & bass thing. People have always tried to compare us or put us in the same category as other things, but I think it’s more difficult to do that now. I’m not sure there’s very much around like what we do.”