Trust @ Sneaky Pete's, 18 May

Air, when compressed, gets hotter and harder to contain. The same could be said for Toronto trio TRUST and their Sunday night crowd at Sneaky Pete’s. From the opening frazzled klaxons and cardiac beats of Gerylon, an infectious track from recent LP Joyland, there’s a sense of something big forced into something very, very small. Canadian nostalgic and TRUST mastermind Robert Alfons struts on his cramped stage, black CATS tee hanging on his wiry and gangly frame, croaking his sleazy poetry over an explosive synthpop tide.

The set is equal parts Joyland and debut TRST, the latter’s offerings earning whoops of recognition (particularly gut-wrenching closer Sulk), but the night’s strongest cards are dealt from the 2014 release, especially the slithering, squeaking Lost Souls/Eelings, and Icabod’s pulsing synthesiser loops. Every nanometer of their production is seductively 80s, from the drumlines to the melodies, so revivalist so as to have time-travelled.

But for all the entrancing synths and dazzling, mesmerising lights, it’s Aflons’ beguiling vocal that carries the show; muffled, grimy, and somehow older than his years. His thin silhouette might get lost in the smoke, but his voice – a Twilight Zone narrator, as esoteric as it is sexy – throbs clearest and most uniquely in the darkness.