After what was by all accounts a storming show at last week’s Punt, the opportunity to see more than the last half-song of Phantom Theory’s set is an appealing one, and it draws us to the mid-week Wheatsheaf for a show of four interesting and energetic new noisemongers.

First up are two-piece Adrenochrome, a debut gig for former members of Tactical Sekt and Sow, and a very promising start – the vocalist tells us the music has been a year in the making, and it’s certainly very polished for a new band’s first gig. In fact the vocalist tells us all kinds of other things, thanking friends for coming and singling out individual members of the crowd for praise in a way that makes us feel like we’re intruding on a private party. Musically it’s what you’d expect from the pedigree: techno-industrial synth backing typical of the Noi-Tekk stable, hard and thumpy, with metal-style growled and shrieked vocals, a lot of jumping around and dreadlock-swinging – so much that we wonder if the tempi of the tracks is chosen to match the singer’s dreads’ resonant frequency. If there are lyrics, they’re almost completely unintelligible, but the performance is strong and the backing is solid; it would be misleading to say it’s the most “promising” debut gig we’ve seen in a long time because that would imply they have lots of room to improve, and that’s not necessarily true. They’re a fully-formed industrial act, and what they lack in gigging experience they make up for with excitement and energy.  It’s hard to fault the optimism in trying to get a moshpit going at the Wheatsheaf at 8.30pm on a Wednesday evening, and we’ll look the other way for the comment about other promoters failing to put electronic music on in Oxford, which is just silly – promoters aren’t putting on much local *industrial*, perhaps, but experience suggests that’s because there hasn’t really been any. Here’s hoping Adrenochrome can change that. They certainly have the ability – up against some competition, they’re our band of the night.
 
Kamikaze Test Pilots are definitely not from round here. From Zimbabwe via Wokingham, apparently, and their outsider status is worn proudly with a strange mish-mash of styles and influences that wouldn’t likely be taken seriously round these parts. They’re a strange mix of different stereotypes of serious muso: guitarist A looks like Chad Kroeger with a Led Zeppelin t-shirt, mad staring eyes and a manic grin; guitarist B sports dreads and a flying V; bassist plays an Ibanez and somehow wears a beat-style goatee and leather trilby without shame; drummer takes a no-nonsense no-frills look and just pounds away undistracted. All are immensely good at their instruments and they play very tightly together.  Unfortunately, what they’re playing is a kind of prog-funk-rock cross between Red Hot Chili Peppers and Phish, starting like an indulgent, shabby sort of show-off jam. The lyrics are completely forgettable, and feel as if they’re only there to mark the difference between the verses and
choruses, and the whole thing is supremely cheesy. But after a couple of songs it becomes increasingly difficult to hate them; they’re a good-times group, playing very tight party tunes on a lineup of bands trading on punky energy and distorted aggression. They start their set looking very out of
place, but their refusal to act like they feel out of place, combined with well-practiced and solid musicianship, is a winning combination. They aren’t from round here, but it looks like where they are from is probably more fun.
 
And so to Exit International. Drums and two bass guitars, played by short men built like brick walls flinging themselves around with tightly controlled abandon. It’s prog-post-rock in the vein of all kinds of bands that Vacuous Pop et al have been promoting in Oxford since 2004 or so, and while it’s enjoyable to watch, they don’t seem to be bringing anything new to an already overcrowded genre. The vocal consists of atonal unintelligible shouting, the riffage is heavy and the drums are punishing, but there is a feeling that they’re showing off rather than rocking out -time signature changes and precision musical manoeuvres measured to impress actually just break the flow and make it difficult to sustain interest. It’s slick without being interesting. Exit International are a does-exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin band, and while it is an enjoyable ride it’s not one you’d find yourself recommending to your friends.
 
Straight away it’s clear that Phantom Theory have something that the other bands tonight don’t, something that justifies the headline slot. Musically it’s not too dissimilar to Exit International but where the former had a tendency to showboat at the expense of momentum, Phantom Theory take a riff and run with it. Seeing as there are only two of them, it shouldn’t be impressive that they play so well together, but it all looks simultaneously effortless and energetic – the drums and guitar mesh
tightly together, with the two vocals linking well over the top. Having said that, it does all start to sound the same pretty quickly; there are brilliant moments, but it seems best appreciated in short bursts. The latter part of the set, however, brings in the tunes, and the last song has an almost euphoric quality in the style of a slower Parts & Labor. When they veer away from the indie-rock time-signature-bothering template and crack out the grandiose riffs, it really works. Though for anyone else who only caught the last half-song of their set at the Punt, that was the best part of their set by some way. Hopefully in time they can fill the rest of their set with that kind of greatness.