Slow Club

Occasionally - and it's a surprisingly rare thing these days - a band learns its craft by practicing religiously and gigging consistently as opposed to releasing a few half-baked recordings on Myspace and getting a good PR to talk them up.

Meet Slow Club, although if you arrived early to see Hot Club de Paris or The Noisettes recently you might well have done already. Aren't they awesome? It's not a case of some big-bucks label buying them onto those tours, either, because the pair are currently unsigned. They still play the Sheffield bar circuit - for free - practically every other week.

It's this hard graft and stubborn determination that's seen their craft elevated from scattershot anti-folk - the last time I saw them, it was merely a beautiful mess - to something aesthetically appealing and musically cohesive, not to mention original. The songs, too, are blossoming. Already, 'Because We Are Dead' is sounding like the tune to bring them to a wider and more appreciative audience than tonight's half-empty Leadmill.

Why? Let's start with the harmonies. Somewhere between cooing and yowling, the vocal interplay between Charles and Rebecca is absolutely crucial to these songs. They've developed an intuitive understanding now of when to lay off the volume and when to go full throttle; it's this twinned with their novel approach to percussion that makes tonight's set a bit special.

Armed only with a bass drum, chair, some bottles and a tambourine, Rebecca uses a stick and a spoon to hit, tap and scrape a percussive accompaniment for their dulcet tones. Those who've seen A Hawk And A Hacksaw will know what I mean; it shouldn't really work but it just does. A word for Charles' guitar playing, too: this kid can sure play fast, and his technique's none too shabby either. Really, though, it's more about the chemistry between the pair and the confidence with which they're starting to perform. It's been a while, but I leave tonight feeling genuinely excited about Sheffield music once again.

Photo by Gary Wolstenholme