Black Country, New Road is meant to suggest a “good way out of a bad place”, according to vocalist Isaac Wood. Their debut single only came out this time last year but the old band they most patently resemble is Slint, a 90s US outfit whose mysterious, emotional excursions remain a byword for self-effacing intensity, if not large bank balances.

Only two singles old, and still considering label options for their forthcoming debut album, BCNR sound both charmingly vestigial and utterly of the moment.

Isaac Wood's lyrics are studded with trashy pop culture references and curdled tales of bad sex It also feels, thrillingly, like it might even take off this year. While the constituent parts of this mesmerising din are easily picked out – gnarly math-rock, like that of BCNR’s fellow travellers Black Midi, contemporary classical, jazz, klezmer – the effrontery of having all this music, all at once, feels genuinely daring. Most of Black Country, New Road’s tracks follow this pattern of resisting pattern, developing over several minutes breaking down, pulling back together – a study in tension and release held to account by a fantastically able drummer. Out of the anguish and feedback there eventually emerges the sweetest of melodies, on which violin and sax double up and keyboards provide icy atmospherics. He builds to a holler and the band plunge into a lacerating workout, drawn mostly from early 90s post-hardcore punk. Eventually, one of the guitarists in BCNR begins intoning something.

Through the fog, the outline of a violin and the shape of a saxophone are visible some silhouetted figures stand, some crouch.

The lighting (of which there is little) and the dry ice (more copious) help to wrap Black Country, New Road in a haze of unreality. T here are, apparently, seven people on stage, making what sounds like eastern Mediterranean rave music.

Down with the sickness midi