Electrelane

For the record, we didn’t find too much wrong with No Shouts, No Calls. But then, we’re not everyone. Tonight, you see, is all about performances from bands whose most recent recorded output has met with mixed reactions from fans and press alike. Not that you’d notice from the capacity crowd, but on this kind of evidence, neither’s live credentials are exactly in doubt.

The Early Years work best when their psych-tinged drone rock stylings are counterbalanced with their surprisingly meaty rhythm section. The drummer hammers out rhythms with the unrelenting precision of a frenzied schoolmaster dishing out canings, the bass sounds muscular and dark of intent, but when the bottom drops out, they lose their sense of purpose, with too much of the material pushing past in a wash of fret-scraping post-rockisms. As such, tracks from their ponderous recent EP can come across as a little tame, such as ‘On Fire’, which dallies too long in rather tepid, noodly fashion before launching into a blockbuster finale. Still, the wig-out parts are an indulgent pleasure, all sawing guitars and trippy, reverb-soaked vocals and rocket-powered, kaleidoscopic aceness.

Likewise, Electrelane’s best moments come when they play to their strengths as a live outfit, with Mia Clarke’s versatile guitar acting as a foil for Verity Susman’s imaginative keyboard fills. The former is equally at home coaxing twisted-metal squeals of feedback from her amp as she is playing ringing trebly hooks, or stoking up the anthem factor with punky riffs that sting like sheeting rain. Meanwhile Verity swooshes her He-Man bob from behind her keyboard, switching deftly from ornate plinking to indiscriminate key-bashing in the tinkle of an ivory.

Like their grandstanding musical cousins Arcade Fire, the band is all about those goosebump-inducing moments, and when it works, it feels great, but when the elements fail to come together, the effect is a bit cloying. ‘At Sea’ manages to be both, pilfering the bass drum-thud and portentous bass-line of ‘Rebellion (Lies)’ and metamorphosing into a spectral, sweeping beauty all of its own. “I ACTUALLY love you!” shrieks one overenthusiastic fan, and you know what she’s on about – at their transcendent best, Electrelane are a band worthy of your palpable admiration.