Tronic @ The 13th Note Cafe, 19/01/07

Tronic celebrated their 1st anniversary of contemporary electronic performances and Glasgow's 13th Note Cafe seemed packed to the rafters. Getting to the bar presented a problem and it is surely only a matter of time, when Tronic is shipped to a bigger venue.

Tronic are excellent purveyors of Scottish electronica, unearthing hidden gems and providing a genuine scene around Glasgow. There is an army of musicians armed with laptops, synths, guitars, samplers and drums that explore music in both electronic and post-rock terms. Maybe its completely unintentional, but there is a electronic/post-rock scene stirring, here, in Glasgow.

Last month's Tronic, was a succesful night, complete with a great performance from Engine7. First up on Friday, was Beaches of a Proud, who displayed promising abilty with his Straefern Hakon style soundscapes. Samplers, guitars and keyboards were engaged and along with some nice visual work provided a dreamy start. An enigmatic name and an enigmatic sound.

Ives proudly proclaimed "they quite like Orbital" and their beat-driven electronica certainly did back up this claim. At times, the build-up's were superb and were followed up by huge, crunchy beat programming. Underworld would be another good reference point for Ives' music and, overall, it was a successful perfomance. Although, sadly the duo are going to be using laptop's from now on and not their array of synths and samplers.

I had heard a few good things about headliner Dextro and seeing a musician over-laying dark and moody soundscapes with some expert live drumming was initially interesting. However, I felt that his set was slightly one-paced and lost a bit of interest towards the end. It was by no means a bad performance though, with his urgent drumming particularly standing out.

Overall another excellent night at Tronic, a musical project that is definitely going places.