Echo Machine @ Conroy's Basement, Dundee, 20 Jul

Echo Machine make their debut performance before a home crowd in Conroy’s Basement, Dundee. With support from industrial pop-punk duo, Queequeg’s Coffin, the show is a gender-bending display of futuristic sounds, testing the limits of what can be achieved with the right gear and a very receptive audience.

Queequeg’s Coffin take to the stage like a post-apocalyptic fantasy with Mad Max-inspired make-up and bondage wear – much like the feminist world of the movie, vocalist Megan dominates the stage whilst bassist Jonno stands chained to the amp and synth set-up like a dungeon slave, hammering home unrelenting bass riffs that thunder along to the gothic chanteuse who boasts extraordinary range and control over her voice sounding like a grungier Cheryl Lynn. Their drum machine/sampler and bass synth combo produce industrial sounds that mimic the grinding of machinery and the clanging together of metal pipes and other debris, creating the perfect underworld soundtrack. The duo end their already impressive set with an uncanny cover of Le Tigre’s Deceptacon leaving the audience suitably pumped for tonight's headliners.

Queer Synth-pop trio Echo Machine are made up of ex-bandmates from The Mirror Trap: Michael McFarlane, Ben Doherty and Gary Moore. The band is joined by synth virtuoso Lewis Davie and drummer Sam Taylor (Vladimir) who plays with the accuracy of a drum machine and with the onstage presence of a seasoned live musician. Moore warns the audience that the set might be chaotic but this soon evaporates as they explode into a balls-to-the-wall rendition of their latest single, Vibrations.

Moore is fascinating to watch as he flamboyantly dances around the stage like a glitter-clad Edward Cullen from Twilight. Each member of the band has their own motherboard of effects pedals which produces a wall of intergalactic sounds. Although there are a few barely detectable slip-ups throughout their debut set, which Moore apologises for, Echo Machine are innovative in every aspect showing that it's impossible to do something wrong if it's never been done before.