Shiny Toy Guns, Gander, Bournemouth

AT first, LA-based Shiny Toy Guns are quite hard to see through the dramatic strobe lighting.

But once the smoke parts, the four-piece pull off a rather intimidating look with heavy make up and stomping buckled combat boots.

The sound is reminiscent of American indie meeting cutting edge dance rock - The Killers meet The Human League as the guitar is obscured by heavy pop synths and distant singing to create a new wave artsy romance.

The vocals are divided well between Chad Petee and Carah Charnow.

They rarely sing together and the fact that one moment you are listening to a boy, the next a girl creates different layers in each song.

The relationship between the two develops into an interesting battle, each trying to better the previous melody or scream.

It helps that they both have excellent voices for the style of music.

Not wanting to be overshadowed by the front two, drummer Mikey Martin is unusually situated at the front of the stage.

He plays a high tempo, energetic set as each bassline and cymbal crash adds to his massive presence that is the cement for each track.

Standout number El Disko comes early in the set and nothing seems to match the electro pop, sharp fun of this, as everything seems to become more serious and intense.