You Me The Switch

If asked to name some of the most memorable, awe-inspiring gigs I’ve ever attended… well, I could go on, and on. Opening the floodgates and that. For brevity’s sake though (in illustration of a point already fairly obvious) here are three. 1) Mogwai - Evening Session Tent, Reading 2001: burnt out on a youthfully excessive festival diet, lying on my back to the reverberations of ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’ wondering if this was the greatest thing I’d ever heard. 2) Explosions In The Sky - Bristol Thekla, 2004: no lightshow, no encore even, but a powerful, stately, sway-happy performance rarely matched – my jaw on the floor throughout. 3) Battles - Folkey Dokey Stage, Green Man 2007: straining at the front of a packed tent, bristling with anticipation, late for a stewarding shift but resoundingly, wholly rewarded by one of the most dexterous, inventive displays I’ve seen, well, ever.

My point: (predominantly) instrumental bands have accounted for some of the best shows I’ve ever seen. With regards tonight’s bill, not too long back I saw Instruments (pictured) impress a steadily increasing crowd of Cougar fans at the Luminaire, offering a set that ranks way up there in the upper echelons of those such as described above – that is to say, immense through and through. Poor onstage sound hinders initial proceedings this evening however, though it’s not long before the band find their feet. Instruments trade in such a technically precise, youthfully exuberant form of rock music – seemingly unrestricted by genre-snobbery (claimed influences range from Jimmy Eat World through Wilco) – that they surely must be counted as one of 2008’s great hopes. Post-rock with mathematical chutzpah and simply enormous fun, it’s the playfulness informing their sound that differentiates them from their peers. These tunes stop abruptly, shudder into life when you least expect them to, and sprawl into hitherto unimaginable highs – none-more-so than in the joyous closing cacophony of ‘You Won’t Like Me When I Don’t Take My Vitamins’, spiralling tapped guitars bolstered by an exemplary, thoroughly imaginative rhythm section throughout.

Kontakte by contrast are a markedly less thrilling proposition. Nurturing a deep love for krautrock bands of yore, they are hamstrung by their use of laptop-as-percussion, electronic beats hissing throughout their leisurely, fuzzy bass-led compositions. There is a moment three quarters in when the flickering visual backdrop becomes more prominent, the lights dim some and it all becomes deliciously doom-y, but for the most part the band fail to come into their own.

Up next, You Me The Switch make a strong showing: dealing in angular guitars and mind-boggling time signatures in a similar vein to Instruments, though with a tendency to lock into a cleaner groove. Admirably tight and wholly aurally fulfilling, they also possess an impeccably well-mannered drummer, introducing songs about "erosion” and dutifully thanking the audience for their support. Technically superb he is too – as are all the players tonight – and the band excel in their tremendous final tune where clean tones take a backseat to incendiary bursts of distortion over far too quickly.

Onto headliners Vessels then. DiScovered here, the Leeds-based five-piece have an album in the wings produced by John Congleton (he of The Paper Chase musics and Explosions In The Sky productions), and – do I really need to say it? – make a gargantuan racket. Notably, though, their desire to encompass too many ideas hinders proceedings: while technically astute and commendable in their genre-hopping, the extended electronic segues (during which the band scurry from instrument to instrument) are a trifle indulgent. The power and confidence on display just about justifies this - is intermittently breathtaking in fact - and there’s no denying the band’s talent and ambition, though I’m inescapably left a little cold by the set. For all the formidable waves of noise, dual drum-kit hammering and discipline on show – singing, even! – more emotional investment would elevate them further; a dash of humour, a break in the clouds. Monolithic is the word, though in many ways a compliment as much as criticism. To judge a group this early however is tantamount to folly, particularly when they're as promising as this lot.

A wonderful evening all told, and as I traverse homewards rueing the state of public transport in London, I can at least be safe in the knowledge that the state of left-of-centre music in the capital (and by extension the UK) is in rude health. And this is but the tip of the iceberg – checking out any one of these bands’ MySpace friend lists yields ample reward - a diversion that could set you on the path towards some live shows of the standard that opened this review. Indeed…