Tarwater & Tape @ Mono

The many avid Tape fans looking at this as a double headliner gig were definitely more pleased than the Tarwater crowd come 11pm. They left blissed out and blessed to have seen the sublime Swedes who hushed the whole venue to absolute silence. People ordered drinks by gesturing and pointing throughout the whole half hour set, during which each ambient melody gently segued into the next, always nudging towards a pulse but never quite giving in to it. However, at 11pm Tarwater's audience were left still praying the sound man could sort out the bust equipment so they could at least get a song in before last orders. Influential as they may be, they performed understandably dryly and awkwardly after all the sound problems - not a great look for an electro pop set. A solid set of simple laptop songwriting maybe, but unlike Tape, no new fans made. [Melissa Thomson]