If it's good enough for Abba: Chvrches live in Brighton

The first UK show of this tour and the first since the release of second album Every Open Eye was one that electrified the senses, but also balanced itself comfortably between new and old material throughout the seventeen song long set of powerfully charged, prime time electro pop.

While Iain Cook and the baseball cap wearing Martin Doherty concentrated on pushing out clattering rhythms, svelte bass lines and thundering synths that finely weaved together to become knitted beds of sound, it fell to vocalist Lauren Mayberry to deliver stage presence and human character. Though often elegantly gliding across the vast stage, on songs such as "No Regrets" she took a step away from her primary frontwomanly duties to help bring a touch of live percussion to the synthetic rhythms provided by her bandmates.

Mayberry's between song chat focused mainly on her Netflix viewing, but she also informed us that this more than welcome return to Brighton was actually the first time they'd played in the city since before the release of their debut. She seemed delighted to performed in the same venue in which Abba won Eurovision, but this historical venue tonight hosted a pop performance that was geared as much towards the future as it was concerned with soundtracking our present.

A dark undercurrent often pulsates through the core of Chvrches' sublty complex pop. When put under the microscope there may be small traces of Depeche Mode laying within the band's sonic DNA, but any underlying Eighties pop influences have been cut up, re-jigged and fed on a strict diet of modernism to ensure they appear muscled up, fitter, stronger and more determined - the finale of "The Mother We Share" in particular is one that leaves us believing what we witnessed tonight was something rather special. Chvrches are not only one of the UK’s most exciting pop acts, they are one eho should be held in the same regard worldwide.