BRITISH SEA POWER – Brighton Corn Exchange, 02/10/08.

‘The scene’ might be in one way in 2008, but far from the madding crowd, things are very much as always. Forget the multicoloured bukkake-arching neon-cumshot dance laconica and sneery-beery rock misadventure of today’s musical contemporaries, British Sea Power are a return to the noble schmindie ways of yore: all moth-eaten sweaters and wide-eyed earnestness that provides a neatly unassuming foreground to their epic melodica, which explodes like several grenades in a firework factory. While the rest of indie Britain scrabbles around in the dirt chasing the tail of their own egos with toiling pomposity, BSP refuse to compromise their sound with the passing trappings of contemporary fashion and continued to forge their own unique avenues of wonderpop.

Songs like ‘Waving Flags’ and ‘No Lucifer’ are pithy pop gems without an inch of flab, boasting more solemn melodies and blackened grooves than a bodypopping undertaker. Combining lyrical swathes of alluring assurance and tender defiance, ‘Trip Out’ and ‘Larsen B’ come across like Alexander Trocchi fronting The Delgados after both have ingested just the right amount of Port Ellen. BSP are an idiosyncratic hopscotch of powerfully subtle British indie pop; strong words softly spoken that still serve to deafen the trite warblings of lesser acts, who stand pouting listlessly as their highly-derivative walls of sound leap around aimlessly in the background.

Sure, BSP are far from perfect live: they look as nervous as cats that have just got back from the vet, have little onstage charisma and don’t engage much with the (already admittedly rapturous) crowd, but these are flaws that can be beaten out of them. Besides, by the time ‘St Louis’ has rolled around and built to its beatific climax you begin to remember that life is short and art is long – the indie kids of the distant future may well spend their days poring over the remains of MGMT’s wardrobe, but it’ll be BSP tunes they’ll be whistling. The band continue their slow burn ascent and 2009 could be the year that they follow Elbow into the choppy waters of mainstream recognition.

Then the lights came up and it was time to go home. So we did.