The Unkindness of Ravens @ The Rhythm Factory, London

PHOTOS:
OLI SLOANE

In the bleak midwinter of 2010, this electro-grunge duo went on an exodus to Berlin where they spent two months cutting a new album, playing free festivals and making mysterious contacts. And tonight, with a blast of death-ray bass that stops the jukebox in its tracks, they're back on home turf and on stage again. The only question is: who are they now?

In some ways The Unkindness of Ravens are the same band they were before Christmas: 'Accelerator' was always a vision of the blues filtered through shards of broken glass and pumped up into a menacing beast. Tonight however, it sounds louder, freer and more hedonistic than ever. A renewed confidence in the band is clear from the way they strut the stage with unblinking conviction: Ben a pitch black future-punk, Nina a rock poet of the 1969 mould, dressed like a cross between a tribal warrior, a Greek Goddess and a techno vixen.

'Prototype' was originally written for a virtual rock festival and, as it starts the dance up tonight, it sounds as alien and futuristic as that inception suggests: the song feels like an evil rogue Nanobot, moving behind the wires of our secure digital world. Nina's vocal is largely robotic and duhumanised, although between the cyber-cracks she allows the odd ecstatic cry to escape, subverting its metallic edge with the wildness of human DNA.

Later, the band's most romantic song is paradoxically their most brutal: 'Circle' is made up of Terminator effects and gunshot beats, but its vocal - a depiction of lovers clinging together despite intense storms - makes a real human connection.

The promise of new material comes with 'Virus', the first taster of their already-recorded debut album. A grittier update on electroclash, the atmosphere here is spooky and ethereal minimalism - it's a pretty damn interesting insight into what we can expect this summer.

The same but different, constant but morphing - the Ravens of 2011 are shaping into gothic winged creatures powerful enough to take on The Dark Knight. This year has their barcode scanned all over it.