Spook School / Martha / Plastic Animals @ Henry's Cellar Bar, Edinburgh, 11 October

Rather aptly, Edinburgh oddities the Spook School have returned to the scene of their first ever gig – the tiny sweat-pit that is Henry’s Cellar Bar – to launch their debut album Dress Up, on the cred-laden Fortuna Pop label, with a few friends and silly costumes in tow.

We’ll get to those, but first up are Plastic Animals who bravely pack their short set with new tunes, largely ignoring last year’s Automaton EP and their contribution to the Beer Vs Records project. The new songs are as dreamy and hypnotic as anything they’ve managed before and confirm that this is a band now brimming with maturity and ambition.

Durham’s Martha are billed as a vegan straight-edge pop band but pack more muscle than four non-meat eaters have any right to. Their songs are fast, furious and packed with four-part melodies, although one too seamlessly starts to blend into the next by the time their short set comes to a close.

The Spook School’s reputation for daftness is well known and tonight guitarist Adam Todd is dressed as a spider while bassist Anna Cory appears to be someone’s garden. But their music needs no such gimmicks. Heavily referencing C86 and twee-pop bands of yore, the older Are You Who You Think You Are? dovetails wonderfully with spiky latest single I’ll Be Honest, loosening both the limbs and vocal chords of the packed house. For a young man of limited height, Todd cuts a towering stage presence and sibling Nye (here as a vegan straight-edge pop Buster Keaton, seeing as you asked) is an increasingly confident singer. While they may never take themselves too seriously, it might just be time for the rest of the country to. [Stu Lewis]