Puglia Sounds, Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen

Puglia, otherwise known as Apulia, is the heel of the kinky boot that makes up Italy. It’s usually associated with the golden sands of the Ionian coast, the clear, sun-spun waters of Castellanata Marina, the palaces of Bari, and the sublime fish restaurants of Peschici. There is, however, another side to this Italian paradise.

It boasts a music scene whose chief contenders resent being lazily lumped in with cheesy holiday Euro-disco or worthy local folksiness, bands and DJs who wish to engage with the wider spectrum of western pop, rock and dance music.

For four days Puglia Sounds is bringing an array of such acts to London. Tonight they kick off in the heart of Brit hipsterdom – Hoxton Square – and the first act is A Copy For Collapse. Yes, it’s true, some of these bands have names that are beyond clunky, translation breakdowns incarnate. The headliner is called Moustache Prawn, for fuck’s sake, which sounds like a wet Wednesday afternoon Salvador Dali pastiche. This doesn’t mean these artists are not musically astute. A Copy For Collapse, for instance, is one man with his laptop, clad in a badge-dotted cut-off denim jacket. His debut album Last Dreams on Earth appeared recently but his whooshing electronica, redolent of Acid Washed and the like, is amped up in the live arena, given extra 4/4 impetus. It sounds like a less bombastic Fuck Buttons at a house club. And it’s a solid start.

Puglia Sounds has begun and it looks like it has a tailwind in its sails

Next up is Girl With The Gun, a trio, two tee-shirted boys and a tee-shirted girl, occasionally haunted by unwanted treble feedback. They delve into the sound of Camden circa 1989, the recently disinterred sound of shoegaze, melodic guitar pop run through the filter of hazy psychedelic intention. Girl With The Gun, however, also inject a jangly upbeat indie strum to proceedings, although they end on the requisite explosion of distortion and madcap drums.

Flowers or Razorwire (I know, I know) are next. This trim five-piece, svelte and angular, sharp beards and smart, casually dark clothes, introduce funk into the proceedings. There’s a hint of Bloc Party in what they do but they’re far further into the actual groove, the rhythm. All the sets tonight are short but this lot demonstrate real festival-friendly punch in their window of opportunity.

Which just leaves it to Moustache Prawn to close. They’re not the top turn of the evening but they are the most NME-friendly, which offers them commercial potential. This is indie straight out of the jar, UK-flavoured to the hilt. It’s not that it’s crap, it’s just that there are plenty of bands doing this sort of thing already. Nevertheless, the crowd, consisting half of London trendies and half of Italian students, responds loudly and enthusiastically. Puglia Sounds has begun and it looks like it has a tailwind in its sails.

The rest of Puglia Sounds is listed below (descriptions taken from their enjoyably muso-geek press release).

Friday 11 October @ The Waiting Room

175 Stoke Newington High Street, London N16 0LH

Redrum Alone - Robo-disco duo with added human fizz. Think Breakbot meets old Daft Punk.

2D Noize - Tasty techno electro-smash pairing. Think Crookers meets Boyz Noise.

Luminodisc0 - Smart, contemporary Italo-house disco producer. Think Soul Clap meets Todd Terje.

Life & Limb - New York-Italian pair creating opulent synth-pop. Think CHVRCHES meets Little Boots.

Saturday 12 October @ Water Rats

328 Grays Inn Road, London WC1X 8BZ

Fabryka - Epic, female-fronted Baroque pop five-piece. Think The Cranberries meets Coldplay.

Erica Mou - Contagious, forthright adult pop singer. Think Katie Melua meets Bebel Gilberto.

Sunday 13 October @ Hootananny Brixton

95 Effra Road, London SW2 1DF

Mama Marjas - Unique Afro-Caribbean roots-pop singer. Think meets Ms Dynamite meets Don Omar.

Miss Mykela - One of Italy’s leading female reggae artists. Think Gregory Isaacs meets Lauryn Hill.

Insintesi - Prime electronic dub duo. Think Adrian Sherwood meets Thievery Corporation.

Overleaf: watch the video for Malibu Dream by Flowers or Razorwire