Live Review: Earth, Bonnie Mercer, Margins

Margins make excellent use of the spaces between notes. They sit in a semi-circle, utilising visual cues as roadmarkers through their spiralling instrumental works. Every squeak of feedback or pick grind is used – nothing wasted. The bass acts as the driving force, simple lines repeated to the point where they change before your ears, as if dissecting every note to be reassembled in reverse. They breathe life into every note they play, the crisp guitar work flies above the bass and drums, which lock into grooves deep enough to get lost in.

Bonnie Mercer walks onto the stage armed with nothing but a guitar (and you'd have to say a fuckload of pedals) and proceeds to test the limits of the possible sum of these parts. The 'song' she conjures is 30 minutes of pulsing devastation. In parts it sounds more like a road crew laying asphalt than what many would consider 'music' but, as Margins did before her, Mercer brings life to the sound she's creating – it becomes a living, growing, breathing entity.

Earth front up to overwhelming applause, which frontman Dylan Carlson waves off in a delightfully shy fashion. He begins by telling us not to worry if we caught their Toff show earlier in the week, as tonight they'll be doing things differently. They not so much launch as tip-toe into first number Multiplicity Of Doors off their recent album Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light II, which sets the scene for a slow-burning evening of more drone than doom.

The opening stanza works well, a cluster of dudes in front of us slow-bang heads to the minimal arrangements. A “Shut the fuck up” rings out of the quiet between songs as Carlson visibly cringes but for the most part the crowd stand in revered silence, navigating the sonic paths Earth are creating. It's an introspective experience, which through numbers like The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull off the 2008 album of the same name and the dynamic Ouroboros Is Broken is gripping, hypnotic. Where the thing falls down, and especially given the intensity of the opening acts, is in the sameness of some of the material on offer through the mid part of the set. Still, you've got to respect the dedication to their obscure cavity in the musical plain. If only they'd allow themselves to break away from the leash from time to time – but then they most likely wouldn't matter.