Foals marked their brief return to the UK before re-embarking on an epic international tour with their most exhilarating live performance to date, unleashing their splinter sharp tunes on the hallowed ground that is Hope Farm, or to lesser mortals Glastonbury.

Foals may be relatively new to the festival scene, popping their Glasto cherry with this years performance, but after bravely facing a crowd of baying mud encrusted fans and enthralling the surging masses with a headfuck of instrumentals before crashing into ‘The French Open’, describable only as an act of ironically polished chaos; the Oxford five-some have proved their muster. ‘Balloons’, the bands psychedelic cacophony of hysteric guitars and thumping drum beats, sums up the bands live performance; brilliant carnivalesque psychosis. An aspect enforced through the acrobatic antics of Foals front-man Yoav, who ricocheting across the stage in almost epileptic proportions, sent electric charge rippling through the crowd with the epic guitar jangling ‘Cassius’; the energy of his performance building to a climax with his dare-devil scaling of the stages speaker system; striking fear into the hearts of the festival security.

Working together Foals are enigmatic, compelling and insane. Their ability to destroy any essence of docility a triumph in the face of musical apathy, and a victory for chaos. If this is a flavour of what’s still to come, bring it on.

Michelle Marsh