THE HIDDEN CAMERAS (London Bush Hall, 29/01/14)

The Hidden Cameras are a lot tamer than they used to be (no men clad in lycra bodysuits gyrating around a crucifix atop a church altar this time), but Canada's premier "gay church folksters" still know how to put on a bloody enjoyable show. It's nice to have them back.

MOONFACE (London Elgar Room, 27/01/14)

No, it's not Sunset Rubdown, but Spencer Krug's beautiful, elegiac solo piano performance was yet another triumph from one of the greatest musicians in the world today. He's ditched the virgin ghost snakes of old to sing about love and stuff, but he's still got an ear for an expressive, eccentric turn of phrase, and there's still hints of the piano-crashing mania of old. Not sure if it's better than the work he did with Siinai, but one can't fault the guy for refusing to remain tied to the past.

MOGWAI (London Royal Festival Hall, 25/01/14)

Mogwai have always been a band I've always felt I should like more than I actually do, but tonight went some way to rectifying that. I still think they're a bit too post-rock by numbers for my tastes (especially as I tend to be more attracted to the orchestral end of the genre), but "Mogwai Fear Satan", with that mid-song eruption of eardrum-shredding guitar noise definitely stands alongside "Acid Police" and "Untitled 8" as songs that would justify the tinnitus I'm almost guaranteed to get in later life.

SON LUX (London Lexington, 23/01/14)

Wow. How to describe this gig and do it justice? Son Lux's "Lanterns" is a good album and all, but the live performance cranked things up five-hundred-fold, adding so many elements and twists and eccentricities that weren't there before. It's a show that flitted between haunting, echoey balladry and full on barrages of Boredoms-esque noise rock, a show that was cerebral yet also dancey, a show that on paper was the epitome of Pitchfork hipsterism, yet also delivered substance to back up the style. Given I was expecting a guy droning over pre-recorded backing tracks, the fact I witnessed one of the greatest live introductions to a band since perhaps Battles or Wildbirds and Peacedrums was a truly thrilling experience, and one that I would recommend to anyone who likes having their minds blown.

BOBAN I MARKO MARKOVIC ORKESTRA (London Scala, 19/01/14)

As much as I love Boban and Marko Markovic, I think a full set of their Balkan brass brilliance is too much for me. Their festival and brass battle sets in past years were incredibly focused, getting the mix of traditional Eastern European dance tunes and more modern, technically challenging pieces absolutely spot-on, but there were long stretches tonight that were just a bit self-indulgent. Fantastic at times, but it wasn't a patch on the Barbican performance last year.

STEPHEN MALKMUS AND THE JICKS (London Kentish Town Forum, 16/01/14)

Review: HERE

(Photo: Wumni Onibudo/The Line Of Best Fit)

TEETH OF THE SEA (London Electrowerkz, 11/01/14) 








Imagine every film set in a 80's style sci-fi dystopia, distil them into musical form, and you've basically got Teeth of the Sea. Not as sonically brutal as their Electric Ballroom show (the small room muffled some of the subtleties of their sound), but not too shabby a start to the 2014 gig calendar, especially with a setlist bookended by the mighty electro/instrumental/post-rock assaults of "Reaper" and "Responder". Support band Evil Blizzard also truly lived up their name; no wonder Mark E Smith loves them, they're what the inside of his head would look like during a particularly bad trip.