School of Seven Bells / Kyte

If only sound was visible, then tonight we would all be swimming in the sensual embrace of a thick, shimmering fug. Tomorrow the eviscerating powers of Rolo Tomassi, Fucked Up and The Bronx, for Rock Sound's Shred Yer Face Tour, will rip this place apart, but for now the skin-tearing and limb-smashing can wait. Right now the Cockpit's smaller room is blissfully reserved and awash with ambient mists and hazy cadences.

Leicester five-piece Kyte make beautifully crafted soundscapes delivered with heart-breakingly minimalism that literally fill this compact but packed room. Front man Nick Moon breathes achingly into the microphone, pulling at his hair and face as the likes of 'Ghosts' and 'Boundaries' swirl around him - these are songs that rise and rise into a sonic wall of majestic, dignified beauty. But despite their oceanic tension, Kyte convey a cold delicacy that doesn't entirely warm the cockles. In such a small space, they should be utterly intense but there’s something fragile about them tonight that means they don’t quite hit the spot.

As soon as the first delicious harmonies of School of Seven Bells (SV11B) start to wrap themselves around the room, any chill is dispelled. Shoegaze is something of an in-vogue sound at the moment with the likes of The Joy Formiddable, Asobi Seksu and M83 all receiving rave ratings from critics and fans alike on the back of recent performances and albums. But SV11B have put their own mark on the genre by juxtaposing somniferous vocals with hazy electro and driving guitars. The band, made up of twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, ex-On! Air! Library! and Benjamin Curtis of the Secret Machines, met while their respective bands were supporting Interpol and have been collaborating ever since.

'Face to Face On High Places followed swiftly by 'Iamundernodisguise' sound even more luscious in a live setting than on debut 'Alpinisms' while favourite 'Half Asleep' allows the band to weave their celestial Utopia. The gauzy sensibility of the Cocteau twins wrap around the twins' ethereal vocals while hypnotic electronic textures recalls the likes of Curve and Charterhouse. There's not much in the way on energetic showmanship going on, this is a band who seem so engrossed in their own music that they would happily to play to an empty room, but yet they manage to be completely enchanting.

As on 'Alpinisms', there is a lull amid the cathedral sized highs, a trap that the live show also falls prey to and mid-set it does seem like the band are almost chugging through glue and at points it would be fair to say that their sound would benefit from bringing Curtis' guitar more to the forefront rather than being lost amid the dizzying miasma of the girls' harmonies. But never-the-less, SV11B performance tonight is little less than enthralling.

FUTURE GIGS

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