Islet – Islington Mill, Manchester 28/09/10

First things first: Islet are weird. And not just because of their oft-reported ‘snubbing’ of the internet – an ostrich round the band’s neck that they have long since shed thanks to their official website. But they are genuinely bizarre, strange to the very core. The music aside, there’s a lot to love of a band who, on a cold, Tuesday night in Salford, are jumping around a sparse crowd, topless, using the surroundings for percussion, wild eyed and utterly authentic.

Just as they became defined by their supposed unwillingness to play the industry game by not having a MySpace profile, it’d be easy to get sidetracked by the band’s actions themselves. And, even mute, they’d be mesmerising, a swirling mass of movement and energy, seemingly living precisely in the moment, as if the pinnacle of their career might just be playing to a handful of people in Islington Mill. They even seem overjoyed compared to main support – the excellent Slow Motion Shoes, who confidently find their way through their first ever live show.

Even considering the audience/stage boundary blurring of their set, it is the music itself that is most worthy of the phenomenal buzz behind the quartet, especially live. They’re intense, layered chaos, defying sonic borders. There are aspects that graze shoe gaze, elements that hint at Sonic Youth’s angrier moments, parts that even suggest they could be attempting a psychedelic take on heavy metal, but it’s barely coherent and doesn’t quite tessellate in the way you’d expect, which makes them so utterly captivating, even in front of such an admittedly mute crowd. There have been attempts to capture it on record, but so far they have been unsuccessful – despite the high standard of this year’s EP Celebrate this Place, they manage to take that up another notch in the flesh – almost indescribable yet nearly tangible, they’re electric and almost life affirming.

There’s very little else to say – words scarcely seem enough. There was a time when, straight faced, The Cribs could claim to be the most exciting live band in the country. Times change and the young upstarts of today inevitable turn into the pub-rock pleasers of tomorrow. It’s hard to imagine Islet playing to a crowd of 40 somethings who spend their free time listening to The Jam and seeing if Kasabian are touring, but stranger things have happened. However, this is all conjecture – the truth is that Islet could very well be playing your town tonight, and you might miss out. Whatever you do, for your own sake, don’t miss it.