Esben and the Witch @ XOYO, London

What a difference six months (or so) make. A common description of Esben and the Witch’s set at Field Day in London in July was “well-received”. To me, stood in the crowd, the sound was striking but a little uniform, although the muddy beats, bat shit drumming and haunting, often incomprehensible vocals certainly grabbed my attention.

In the interim, Esben and the Witch have found their voice and some light to go with the shade. Perhaps it’s the across-the-board positive reviews for debut album Violet Cries – a collection of gothic electronica about death, love, skin conditions, body parts and avenging deities – but Rachel Davies (vocals, guitar, percussion) has more to say in the first five minutes than she did in six times the length over the summer.

Her voice; which can be both lovelorn and the most terrifying sound since Delia Derbyshire helped to create The Black Mass: the Electric Storm in Hell in 1968; is one of the distinguishing features of the evening. The other is the bone-shaking basslines.

The set comes largely from Violet Cries, apart from the outstanding single ‘Lucia, at the Precipice’. Chiming guitar chords and quiet spaces build a tension that is only released when band mates Daniel Copeman and Thomas Fisher thrash the life out of a drum on the stage. These moments of cutting loose may be rare – the witch house of ‘Eumenides’ is another – but that only makes you realise how well timed they are.