Benbecula Records Night @ Wee Red Bar

As part of The Wee Red Bar's excellent monthly free music night, Benbecula Records steps in to generously put on seven – count 'em – acts tonight. Ranging from space rock to skewed electronica, the evening has most bases covered. Genaro are the closest to a conventional band amongst the lot; with urgent vocals eerily reminiscent to Ian Curtis contrasting nicely with the tick-tock rhythm section that pins down the sound, as chiming guitars cloud the room. The marriage of chorused feedback and relentless beats brings bands like Acceleradeck to mind, and it's when the vocals fade leaving the music to build that Genaro truly shines. Reverbaphon are another on the growing list of inventive 'man + guitar + sampler' acts around at the moment. While you might expect Warp-styled beats at a night like this, the tumbling snares that litter the electronic percussion keeps them interesting. Reverbaphon's sound is dense at the low end, brittle at the top, and squawks and chirrups pinprick the whole throughout. Lamentably, the constant twittering of the art school crowd nearly overpowers some of the more reflective sounding acts, but overall tonight proves an interesting showcase of a varied Scottish label. [Matt Gollock]