K-X-P @ Captain's Rest, 24 Jan

Glasgow quintet Pyramidion’s brand of wailing psych-rock is a confusing proposition for a dreary Monday night in Glasgow. There are encouraging moments – reminiscent, by turns, of Sun City Girls’ overdriven cacophonies, and Om’s mystical stoner rock. Ultimately a slight lack of imagination, both in the songs’ structuring and sonic palette, makes it hard to swallow their wigged-out indulgence wholesale.

A Finnish techno/glam/krautrock trio, K-X-P would be pretty confusing in any context, but their sound does make a strange kind of sense tonight: irrepressibly rhythmic and dancefloor-driven, but also scuzzy, dark and introspective. Their setup is a novel take on the power trio, with driving bass and drums underpinning the grooves, but guitar eschewed for electronics.

The latter is provided by Timo Kaukolampi, also on vocals, a man whose pop pedigree is indubitable: by day, he writes and produces for Annie. Channelled into the underworld of sleazy techno, that sensibility produces something closer to LCD Soundsystem, with songs that build irresistibly, without ever seeming to hit obvious crescendos. Highlight of the night is the closing Elephant Man, which sees Kaukolampi bellowing and pumping his fist, defying the evening’s inauspicious beginnings. Grim winter Mondays, K-X-P suggest, are precisely when you should be getting your hands in the air. [Sam Wiseman]