HEALTH / Apostille @ Stereo, Glasgow, 26 Oct

It’s just gone quarter to eight in a half packed Stereo on a dreary Glasgow night, but looking at the hyperactive Michael Kasparis it might as well be New Year’s Eve on the main floor of Berghain. Seeing Apostille live is always a treat as Kasparis casts an entrancing spell upon the uninitiated amid a hail of propulsive proto-punk and industrial analogue electronics. For his final act, the artiste finishes up prostrate in the middle of the crowd after a frantically demented rendition of Powerless' opening track, Life, which sounds a bit like Sparks as distilled by Suicide.

Folk have been waiting for HEALTH to come back to Glasgow for over half a decade, which makes it all the stranger that most of the near sell-out crowd stands seemingly ossified throughout. Along with the likes of Abe Vigoda and No Age, the band originally cut their teeth at LA experimental space The Smell, so they’re well acclimatised to sweat lodges like our beloved Stereo. With a six-year gap and a Max Payne score inbetween records, there’s an understandable stylistic dissonance in the set which isn’t always bridged; somewhat surprisingly, it’s the newer, poppier Death Magic material that elicits the biggest cheer.

The gargantuan soundscapes of New Coke make a racket comparable to Godzilla undergoing defibrillation, while the rolling war toms of Men Today reach a decibel level loud enough to have a few unlucky souls reconsidering their standing position in front of the speakers. Flat atmosphere or not, the performance in itself justifies the wait. [Graeme Campbell]