Going to the Islington Academy is always a pleasure - nice shiny floors, cushty leather armchairs upstairs, nice lighting and decent, chilled out people. Tonight however was special as the venue was infused with the innovative, atmospheric, awesome sounds of Pink Floyd influenced London band Pure Reason Revolution.

This is a band that sounds like nothing else that is out there at the moment - all four members synchronise their voices in four part harmonies as well as bringing in guitars, a keyboard, a synthesiser and a violin to create an impressive amount of resonance which, had I not seen them live I would have surely attributed to a fully fledged orchestra. PPR hit all the buttons: one moment they sound like your regular indie band only to take into outer space the next minute with their defying sounding ethereal, prog-instrumentals. They have 10 minute tracks that are built up in bravado crescendo, like a magnet attracting different instruments and vocals along the way ,feeding on and giving back every different emotion in the room. They seemed to gather the whole of the Academy’s crowd in a palm and lift it higher and higher, especially in epic songs like Bright Ambassadors of Morning. However their set was too short I believed and they failed to play a great song, the Gypsies/Tambourines B-side. Even before I knew I would see them live I imagined how cool it would be to hear that song live in a club or venue. Bands sometimes just don't recognise their own strengths.

Mew I didn’t think much of; they are romantic Scandinavian dreamers, castrato voiced whale music but they have more pizzazz and soul to their songs than say Sigur Rós, the Icelandic fantasists and at times bear a close resemblance to Smashing Pumpkins. One thing about Mew is their extraordinary video backdrops which transported us out into the world of Blythe dolls swimming, cats playing violins, rabbits in car crashes and bloodied princesses- they are surreal, imaginative stuff and a perfect accompaniment to escalating opera-ish soft screeching coming form the long haired romantics. Give the support band some time though and they will surely make a better job as atmospheric, explorative headliners.