Shura, East Village Arts Club, Liverpool Music Week

With the hype surrounding tonight’s show it’s with no surprise that the room is packed out to catch what may be one of the final intimate gigs Shura performs in a while. Swapping the warehouse basement of locals’ favourite The Shipping Forecast, she finds herself within the panelled walls of East Village Arts Club, for Liverpool Music Week. This seems rather fitting of the synth pop player’s aesthetic: pure, clean and atmospheric.

Arriving on stage to much adulation and adoration the denim jacket clad twenty something is quietly spoken. She has adopted her own unique stage persona, embracing her shy and slightly enigmatic nature which is reflected in her music. As she begins to play it becomes clear that all the buzz is well earned. Listening to her and her entourage of toweringly tall bandmates play has a weirdly dissociative feeling about it, an astral projection, like floating outside your body among the ethereal sounds lifting up the audience into a dream-like haze. The sound is beautifully minimal in its feel - imagine The xx radiating white light.

Proving even more chilling live than on record her vocals soar with high notes, every word gliding gracefully. The stories of broken relationships and heartache poetically woven into her lyrics are sung with a tinge of sadness and melancholy. However nothing can dampen the mood of the ecstatic crowd as she removes them from reality for a short while with her extra-terrestrial dream pop.