Lanterns on the Lake, Cargo - review

Once the Newcastle-based sextet began playing, though, their heady concoction of guitars, violin and electronics was enthralling.

"It's a lively crowd tonight," sang Hazel Wilde on Lungs Quicken, delivering her counterfactual lyric to fans becalmed by the heartbeat rhythm, breathy vocal and laptop noises.

It was a stately introduction but that didn't last. They soon whipped up a post-rock storm and veered off in a folkier direction on If I've Been Unkind. Wilde sang this plaintive duet with guitarist Adam Sykes; no doubt it would have been a bit slushy singing with fiancé Paul Gregory. He was busy teasing wondrous sounds from his guitar and played it with a bow on the galloping A Kingdom, which ended with him thrashing a drum.

"It's like The Krypton Factor, we've got to climb over things," said Wilde of their instrument-swapping in the confined space.

Her lilting vocal suited the rhythmic ebb and flow of Ships in the Rain and Tricks, though this band didn't always finish a song the way they started it.

That restless approach, and their undoubted musical chemistry, should keep Lanterns on the Lake burning brightly.

Lanterns On The Lake
Cargo
Rivington Street, Kingsland Viaduct, EC2A 3AY