Arriving at the Albany we found that the much vaunted Hatcham Social had cancelled their appearance. By the time the night was over they had hardly been missed!

I haven't seen or heard Wintergreen and their electro tinged indie pop for ages. I also managed to miss them at the recent Indie Tracks festival. However not much seems to have happened to the band during those 18 months and the two singles, Magic Road and the subsequent Clockwork Mice, are still the highlights of their set. When you consider the latter was released in 2005 you may think that would raise concerns although I guess the band are obviously waiting for the right song to come along. Judging by the new and untitled material aired tonight that wait may be a little longer than planned.

That said I like the bands droning sound especially when it goes up against the bands obvious love for all things jangle pop whilst at the same time experimenting with samples via their shiny new laptop. They certainly sounded good tonight although I was sad not to hear Droning Starlight which is one of their songs from a previous round of demos. Now that could have been a single.

What's with these Swedes and technology? The Honeydrips recently played their entire set via the mobile phone and here tonight Compute's backline was supplied straight via an i-pod supplemented by two keyboards on stage. Compute is one Ulrika Mild but they expand to a three piece line up tonight which included Liechtenstein's front woman Renee.

Compute play an electro pop mix that invokes some of the better synth pop sounds of the 1980's being reminiscent of Yazoo, early Depeche Mode and Giorgio Moroder. Some may have found the music slightly derivative after a few tracks but the electro pop beats came thick and fast for me. It didn't take long for the first person to start dancing with others swaying along too. The rest of Liechtenstein joined in for the set closer Dance With Me further bridging the indie and electro pop divide.

The trouble for Liechtenstein is that they need to know if they are playing to "old gits" like myself. Far from being a pretty good Shop Assistants clone as their recent single Stalking Skills may have suggested they also played songs that had obvious similarities with The Slits, Modettes and Dolly Mixture to name but a few. I found myself singing these bands songs whilst Liechtenstein played their set! Not that this is a criticism of what the band do - on no! Much of this music should sound new and fresh to anyone under the age of 25 whilst I enjoyed the nostalgic element!

The band were playing a few UK dates after their festival stealing performance at Rip It Up. They didn't move much on stage although the smiles suggested they enjoyed themselves. They sounded pretty good too with a range of pretty catchy songs and the set was over before it had begun. Compute joined them on Cravings although unfortunately this wasn't the electro pop version found on the band's My Space page.

Another thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable night courtesy of Spiral Scratch with some excellent Swedish sounds provided by DJ Nick from Tack! Tack! Tack!

Wintergreen - Droning Starlight
Compute - Dance With Me
Liechtenstein - Stalking Skills

[Wintergreen on My Space]
[Compute on My Space]
[Liechtenstein on My Space]