Strange old venue, the Betsey Trotwood. Inconceivably small, shuddering as the Tube shuttles beneath it with a distinct tinge of damp in the air (we are in the cellar after all), tonight it plays host to Sweden’s superbly monikered Wildbirds & Peacedrums.

DiS first encountered this explosive boy-girl duo a month and a half previous at Oslo’s by:Larm festival where they frankly rocked the pants off all they encountered, emerging as one of the most talked about bands of the weekend – dynamic, sharp and none-more-visceral. This will be their first performance in the UK (before heading to the rather statelier Queen Elizabeth Hall tomorrow night to support label-mates and DiS favourites Efterklang, review), and the two adjoining rooms that comprise the basement are suitably packed out.

Before we get onto said act The Sound of Bailey make themselves known to me, and I begin to wonder whether serendipity’s going to keep dropping superb two-pieces like this my way in the future. A pair they may be, these songs are very much the product of classical guitar-plucking main-man Bailey, capably backed in his endeavours by Nick Crofts on keys and, erm, a massive cassette spool sporadically providing added instrumentation (which sits disconcertingly between the pair like some behemoth antique). In fact, further research shows that they bill themselves as a trio live, the reels presumably Member Number Three.

Bailey writes songs about: dinosaurs, jigsaws, sharing headphones on ancient walkmans and “seeing a girl, and within the space of three minutes inventing an entire imaginary relationship with her, right up to the point of the inevitable break-up”. It’s warm and effortlessly smile inducing, natural charisma endearing him to the crowd. The real ace up his sleeve is a seemingly innate ability to marry this wit with fine, wistful sentiment; where unrequited love exists as tangibly as a copy of the TV Times you may peer over on the train or that Tyrannosaurus Rex toy you used to play with when you were little. An easy command of melody and deep, quixotic burr relays these quintessentially British pop songs to us, final song ‘Patterns In The Snow’ a touching closer.

Onwards! Mariam Wallentin fronts Wildbirds & Peacedrums, and as she shyly introduces the band you could be forgiven for sensing some pre-show nerves. The performance that follows obliterates such notions, Wallentin’s stage presence and Andreas Werliin’s virtuosic manipulation of the drum-kit rendering the duo – married duo, none of that White Stripes/Kills ambivalence here – nothing less than a spectacle to behold.

Of course, the very nature of their performance immediately marks them out a force to be reckoned with, devastatingly simple in execution (percussion, vocals, occasional use of a stand-up sitar) – yet wilfully complex in compositional terms. The set this evening ranges from the bruising to the beautiful, the avant-garde to the blissfully straightforward, remaining at all times provocative, fascinating, and not without an almost primal charge.

Behold: the deranged yet tuneful rattle of ‘Doubt/Hope’, the serene grace underpinning ‘I Can’t Tell In His Eyes’ (perhaps the most conventional of all songs offered us here), and bizarre observations elsewhere (“We are all turning into furniture!”). Wallentin herself is an extraordinary front-woman – there’s something of Chan Marshall in her fluid, expressive delivery, while Werliin’s prowess at the drum-kit is astounding; suitably restrained/muscular as necessitated, shoe-less, even ably duetting with his partner at one point.

It’s difficult to communicate how much they impress without descending into twittering hyperbole. By the time they reach an inevitable encore Wallentin has brought out her own drum to further the intensity of the often machine-gun climaxes, and gasps of astonishment resonate throughout the cellar at the vivacity and invention on display. There’s no further recommendation I can really give, and short of closing this review with a rubbish pun about flying high or anything like that, simply implore any interested party check these magnificent Wildbirds out.