Foals @ Cabaret Voltaire

Epileptic strobes blind enlarged pupils; beads of sweat drip tap-like from the ceiling; and a gaggle of beanpole fanboys stand fists aloft, each in awe of the latest scene-shifting sensations. Yup, the UK's Next Big Thing - otherwise known as Foals - are in town and the trendy kids lap up every second. But this Oxford-based quintet conjure more than the staple riff-angles and Topshop-circa styles that so often plague naive young pretenders; there's an unexpected intellect immersed in the cyborg guitar rickets and hypnotic afro-beat woodpecking its way through Cabaret Voltaire. In this hyperactive furnace of luminous sonics, frontman Yannis Philippakis and his roguish cohorts fizz the crowd into a sprawl of flailing limbs with Mathletics' whirling laser-driven disco and the jittery psycho-babble emitting from closer Hummer. At just thirty minutes this hypnotic set is sadly short-lived, but tonight we may just have witnessed Foals grow into prize-winning thoroughbreds. [Billy Hamilton]