Low

Yorkshire four piece Hood are not a band that can be pigeonholed easily. Their sound has been described as anything and everything varying from jazz, electronica, rock, post-rock, alt-folk... to name but a few. Tonight Hood could best be described as a well-intentioned pub fight between various members of Mogwai, Larmousse and The Third Eye Foundation with a little help from local troublemaker, Boards of Canada.

Their sound changes form and direction more times than Morph on a bad acid trip and songs such as 'the winter hit hard' and 'I can't find my brittle youth' (from recent album 'Cold house') provide new dimensions with their edgy and haunting vocals.

Moving swiftly on from the unpredictability and noise explosions provided by Hood- we find Low, three misanthropic mormons from Minnesota.

Their fifth and latest album, 'Things we lost in the fire' irreparably broke our hearts in to tiny, soggy pieces and tonight is no exception. Percussionist and singer Mimi Parker rarely makes eye contact with her audience, which is a blessing as she looks as though she could chew the head off a kitten.

Fortunately, aesthetics are not the point tonight and from the moment that singer/guitarist Alan Sparhawk opens up with 'Dinosaur act, Mimi's death stares are soon forgotten. Low have been described as "Joy-division meets Simon and Garfunkel" but this evening they really are in a league of their own. Every song is awe-inspiring, even the premature version of 'jingle bells'. Their latest single, a cover of The Smith's 'Last night I dreamt somebody loved me' is even more soul-crushing than the original and Mimi's icy vocals set against sparse drumbeats on 'Laser beam', confirm everything we love about Low.