Crystal Castles, Concorde 2, Brighton, May 5

2:54pm Tuesday 6th May 2008

If Toronto duo Ethan Kath and Alice Glass had never burst out of their bedrooms you'd be hard-pressed to imagine such a bizarrely off-kilter spectacle.

As producer Kath hunches anonymously over his keyboard to deliver an endless stream of bleeps and gurgles, Glass yelps and hurtles around with a venom which is at once frenzied and aloof, like a dance version of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O. Behind them a drummer smashed his kit to pieces and white light flickered across the floor.

The pair are an utter anomaly on the NME tour they're currently embroiled in, slamming half an hour of the filthiest, most ecstatic rave conceivable atop a bill of laboured indie mediocrity.

Kath's keyboard contains an Atari soundchip, and the random arsenal of 1980s' sound effects he uses it to unleash gives the sense of being assaulted with a Gameboy. It's both achingly hip and giddily fun to witness.

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