Digitalism @ Liquid Room, 23 Aug

Rating: 4/5

9pm is really too early for an act like Digitalism to take the stage. The German duo are like the Chemical Brothers without the indie pretensions, or Daft Punk without the space-age sheen, and their high-octane electro-clash is tailored more to post-midnight revelry than the evening gig protocol. But this complaint is evidently lost on the Edinburgh crowd, who display all the loose-limbed energy of a chemically fuelled late-night knees-up. Digitalism – the pairing of wiry button pusher Jence Moelle and big, burly cymbal hitter Isi Tüfekçi – raise energy levels with the first bleep of ‘Zdarlight’, and maintain it through ‘Idealistic’, with required “Come on Edinboro” rabble-rousing, before saving the biggest surge of Balearic-style euphoria for set-closer ‘Pogo’. It’s all anything but subtle: booming beats, heavy distortion and unremitting strobe, and most of the horde emerge from the venue sweat-soaked and grinning. It’s now only 10.15pm, and the rest of the night can only be a comedown.

Santogold @ Liquid Room, 19 Aug

Before they play a note, you just know what Glasgow’s Fangs (***) will sound like. Look-at-me hair + New Romantic fashion + luminous make-up + studied nonchalance = filthy, arty electro-punk, with lashings of synth. It would be easy to label them 21st-century-Blondie wannabes, or singer ‘The Queen’ a Karen O sound-a-like, but Fangs have got just enough bite to put paid to such cynicism.

Brooklyn-based Santi White – Santogold (****) to us – is another easy target for the cynics, who question whether the former A&R rep is anything more than a carefully marketed, cross-genre musical magpie. Tonight she proves she is much more than even that; she’s a consummate performer. Flanked by two identical fem-bot dancers who spontaneously break into movement at choreographed moments, the flat-capped, bling-eared White bounces through You’ll Find A Way and L.E.S. Artisites before the capacity crowd can swallow their first drink. The non-singles do sap momentum, so she pulls a few punters up on stage for a dance-off, and rounds off the set with the big, brash, and only slightly annoying The Creator. Even if you harbour doubts about the music, you’ve gotta love her enthusiasm.

Gig review for The Skinny

The Futureheads @ Liquid Room, 2 Mar

***

Having patented the style, The Futureheads do barbershop-punk better than anyone; even if there’s precious little longevity in such a musical straitjacket. So let’s get the inevitable it-all-sounds-a-bit-similar gripe out the way and get on with the gig in hand. Decent Days and Nights is a nought to sixty in zero seconds opener, with singer Barry doing his best maniacal glare and guitarist Ross hurling his instrument within inches of the ceiling. The disclosure of their first new material since the overly cerebral News and Tributes suggests a return to the zip of their debut. Think is a typically pugilistic offering, Hard To Bear is a good broken-hearts song and The Beginning of the Twist is already a crowd-pleaser. The Futureheads’ own neck-dwelling albatross is, of course, Hounds of Love, but they introduce it in perfectly deceptive fashion as “a cover now… Deep Purple’s Smoke On the Water”. A witty evening then, but – and this can’t be left unsaid a second time – it does all sound a bit similar.

The Beginning of the Twist is released on 10 Mar