Forest Swords + Gnod @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester, 8 February

Wirralite producer and occasional graphic designer Forest Swords – Matthew Barnes to his mum – hasn't fitted in a home city gig for this tour, what with supporting Mogwai in Europe and an upcoming appearance at ATP Iceland in July. Instead, Liverpudlian friends and fans have had to travel to Manchester. The Deaf Institute fills with Scouse accents wondering why he can't just play at The Kazimier. Fingers are scrolling through the National Rail app to check the last train back to Liverpool.

Gnod support, attempting to wrench open the universe using a psych-rock saxophone. The Salford collective have a shifting line-up, but their constant is intriguing space jams. Across 30 minutes they grind through one riff, repeating and expanding and exploring, leaving the room vibrating like your internal organs after a dubious fairground ride.

But Swords is tonight's main attraction. The downtempo dub of 2010's debut album Dagger Paths was beloved by Pitchfork, and caused tears to be spilled by Vice – more recently, Barnes has snuggled into the stable of Tri Angle Records, alongside acts such as Manchester-based producer Holy Other. Second LP Engravings appeared last summer, as fragile and beautiful as a fledging preparing to fly.

Onstage, Barnes stoops over samplers and synths, while James Binary adds some bass (and an impressive beard). As with the dry synth-claps and (over)processed vocals of Purity Ring, Forest Swords takes inspiration from R&B and hip-hop – but this is also intensely personal. From the looped, breathy flute of Thor's Stone to the gauzy guitars of Miarches, Forest Swords sounds like a lonely walk through the Wirral mist.

Out of the bedroom, such inward-looking sounds often fail to translate to a live setting. But Forest Swords succeeds, as his music for introverts also brings the introverts together. Tonight, they have congregated here – and, with cans of warming cider, stood together, enthralled. [Jacky Hall]