Live Review: Infinity Broke, The Stress of Leisure, The Scrapes

The cinema room of New Globe Theatre is still filled with rows of seats and proves a relaxing environment for local duo The Scrapes to showcase early why their stocks have been rising so much of late. The duo – Adam Cardell (violin) and Ryan Potter (guitar) – display a relaxed synergy as they build their fascinating soundscapes, their sonic manipulations given added nuance by the vivid colours pulsing on the screen behind them. Comparisons with the Dirty Three are perhaps lazy due to the similar instrumentation but completely pertinent due to the gorgeously lush instrumental flourishes that are both bands' stock in trade.
Four-piece The Stress Of Leisure open with new track Unhappy Wedding Photographer and it's typically biting and sardonic, the emotionless female foils either side of frontman Ian Powne – bassist Jane Elliott and Pascalle Burton (keys/vocals) – giving the song a certain stoic gravitas. They keep things new with the soul-flecked drive of Professional Woman before delving deep into the past for the excellent The Boy's Got Issues, then oscillate back to the present with the sinewy music and spastic vocals of strong newbie Aim High, Get High. They channel The Cars with Work It Out and throw in catchy single Sex Time, before finishing with another killer new track Girl On A Lilo which is taut and melodic and teases of a tantalising new direction for this oft-underestimated ensemble.
Infinity Broke is the new project for former Bluebottle Kiss wunderkind Jamie Hutchings, notable early for the two drummers (former BBK skinsman Jared Harrison and Jamie's sibling Scott, whose kit contains random items such as gas cylinders and metal bins) who lay down a vaguely motorik bed of rhythms on top of which Hutchings and bassist Reuben Wills can go to work. The atmospheric Gallows Queue segues into the charming No Mirrors Here and the early vibe is loose and almost playful but never less than polished, Hutchings proving immediately that he's still a superb craftsman both musically and lyrically. Swing A Kitten drags things into a slightly darker realm, dense and seemingly tinged with anguish, before the epic Monsoon takes things to a whole new level again – the percussionists give a vaguely tribal underpinning, Hutchings banging on a cowbell before wresting squalls of tones and bursts of glorious noise from his guitar. After this maelstrom Napoleon Aged 3 seems relatively stripped-back and sedate, before they offer a couple of new tracks – more recent even than their debut Rivers Mirrors – and finish proceedings with the spellbinding Termites (a reworking of old Bluebottle number Let The Termites Eat Our Riches) which finds the drummers swapping kits and the frontman wringing lines from his axe like he's trying to exorcise the thing. It's great seeing Hutchings back in a band construct, and given their shared history it's unsurprising that Infinity Broke already shows signs of a killer future.