Set inside two domed vaults that were originally constructed to house the coal which once powered local industry, they’ve now been repurposed as a music/arts space to become a gem in Coventry’s cultural crown. Just a stones throw from Coventry’s historic city centre, The Tin Arts has calendar full of alternative and left-field events, hosting rising stars whilst nurturing local talent. Tonight is no exception and features a co-headlining event from two forward facing bands who are pushing music into new sonic realms, charting virgin territory to ensure their respective genres have a bright future.

Hailing from Brazil, Atalhos are a band who’ve absorbed their natural surroundings and the aesthetic hanging over the group is definitely one of South America. They’ve a sound that encapsulates wide vistas and have evocative songs that come presented in sepia-stained celluloid. However, the band are far from parochial, as latest album A Força Das Coisas proves; inspired by the work of French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, it’s a heady tour de force through the mind of one of the twentieth-century’s greatest thinkers and has won the band many plaudits, which means their appearance tonight comes laden with a weight of expectation. If Atalhos are feeling the pressure, it doesn’t show because they hit the stage like a well-oiled machine and the first thing to note is that they become a far heavier beast in the live environment and they hit the stage like High Time-era MC5. A quartet who lock in tightly, there’s interesting interplay between the guitarists with sharp angular chords threaded by lithe guitar lines, whilst the rhythm section delivers a buffalo stomp that threatens to shake the venue to its very core. As English becomes the global lingua franca, it’s heartening that the band sing in their native tongue and this gives their songs a unique flavour and helps colour their sound unique textures. The unbridled enthusiasm with which the band play is highly contagious, with ensures they’ve made a lot of friends tonight and renders them a hard act to follow.

On the eve of the release of their latest album, shoegaze trio KEELEY bring their deliciously dreamy sound to Coventry as part of their Tour On The Edge Of The World. Whilst the band are often tagged as shoegaze, in reality their scope is far bigger and incorporates a vast range of influences, all filtered through the band’s own sensibility so they become part of their DNA and the roots of their inspirations become indiscernible. As with Atalhos, KEELEY undergo a complete transmogrification when they take to the stage, becoming a weightier proposition but without loosing that otherworldly, dreamlike edge. Case in point being opening number ‘Hungry For The Prize’, a track that exists in that magical space somewhere betwixt wake and sleep. Yet it’s certainly not recommended for sleepwalkers or somnambulists because this opener (as with their whole set) connects like a splash of cold water on a sleeping face. As with many bands who operate as a three-piece, KEELEY become far bigger than their constituent parts. It defies the laws of chemistry but they combine to create a wall of sound, and one which Phil Spector would be proud. Like a perfect triangle, the three members feed off each others energy, the bass and drums becoming the perfect foil for Keeley’s feedback-drenched guitar and gently lilting vocals. The tight lyrical focus on the unsolved murder of backpacker Inga Hauser is the cotton that stitches the set together while their cinematic nature of these songs renders each track a Polaroid from Inga’s tragically short life. Akin to a sojourn, the musical journey on which Keeley take us culminates with Trans-Europe 18, but this is one ride we don’t want to end.

“Mine eyes hath seen the glory…”.

KEELEY Set List:

1. Hungry For The Prize
2. Crossing Lands
3. Who Wants To See The World
4. The Movie Of Our Yesterdays
5. Big Brown Eyes
6. London Underground
7. Trains & Daydreams
8. Lost In The Magic Maze
9. Seeing For The Last Time
10. Inga Hauser
11. Echo Everywhere
12. Trans-Europe 18