BEAK> / Thought Forms @ Stereo, 17 November

Fellow Invada signings Thought Forms kick off proceedings with a distortion and reverb-drenched squall of grungy, post-rock noise. With their dual guitars and alternating male and female vocals, the Bristol trio evoke Sonic Youth on a shoegaze binge – there is nothing massively original about their sound, but it's a solid set of effectively-realised sonic chaos.

BEAK> take to the stage with a humble modesty that belies their combined talent and experience – along with Portishead's Geoff Barrow, who spends most of the gig playing drums and singing, are Matt Loveridge of Team Brick on keyboards, and Billy Fuller of Fuzz Against Junk on bass and guitar. Consummate musos all, the sound they pull off live is jaw-droppingly tight, combining elements of krautrock, new wave, post-rock, dub and psych-rock.

Barrow's reverb-drowned howls, intoned, doomy vocals and dynamic, complex drums are the driving pulse of this phenomenally intense performance. Highlights include a taut, dancefloor-destroying Yatton; a woozily hypnotic The Gaol; and a giallo-synth-soundtrack influenced Egg Dog. But most incendiary moment is a pounding, muscular slab of riffage in the form of Wulfstan II, building to a seemingly endless series of epic, heavy peaks.

With just a few nods to their first album, the band stick pretty close to the tracklist of recent second LP >>, managing to evoke small flashes of everyone from Bauhaus and Joy Division to Can and Faust. The crowd roar their approval. For those hip to BEAK>, tonight is a rare treat; Barrow is arguably at his finest here – backed by two of his closest musical allies. The effect is devastating. [Bram E Gieben]