The Human League / Sacred Paws / Niteworks
Waverley Stage, Waverley Bridge, Edinburgh
Winners of the 2017 Scottish Album of the Year award, Sacred Paws were a smart choice to introduce some celebratory warmth into a chill evening, their perky, panoramic sound suggestive of sunnier climes.
San Diego is a typical bouncer, with deft, treble twanging guitarist Rachel Aggs and gamely propulsive drummer Eilidh Rodgers favouring close, uplifting harmonies in brief bursts while eschewing straightforward melodies, layering Afrobeat riffs over a spikily joyful postpunk insouciance. Rodgers’ playing veritably snaps and bounds on Everyday, in spite of the melancholy sentiment it evokes, while Voice is pure, insistent, skittish indie-pop.
Themoodsandtextualdepth they call upon belies Sacred Paws’ cheerful lo-fi aesthetic. That’s in stark contrast to the Human League, whose clinical synth sheen, affectations of eighties nightlife sophistication and routinely ominous,