Damn. Miike Snow are making the lives of the many lazy/talentless/lazy & talentless journos painfully easy. Their insistence on wearing white masks during the performance bears, of course, little relevance to the noises that Miike Snow will joyously suffuse their audience in during their (far too short) hour–long set. That said, a worryingly large number of reviews are centred around stomach-burstingly hilarious one liners, sometimes originally suggesting that Miike Snow are “fucking ugly” (haw haw haw) or merely laughing at their “faux Daft Punk-ism” (couldn’t be further from the truth). Let’s just get over it.

The reality is that, masks or not, Miike Snow couldn’t be more in touch with their audience. When I say “in touch” I don’t mean some journalistic bullshit that is invented to critique bands, but that their physical presence and music is watched or appalling danced to by a completely rapt audience. Again, live reviews often centre around how good a band’s “stage banter” is, and yet Miike Snow don’t say a single word onstage, save for a muffled “thank you” that might occasionally escape from beneath lead vocalist Andrew Wyatt’s mane of hair. All I can do is thank them for it. If I had wanted to see grown men skip gaily across the stage and collapse the entire audience into uncontrollable laughter, I would have gone to see Michael McIntyre, cheers. If Miike Snow’s silence tonight shows anything, it’s simply how absorbed by their own music they are.

A bold move for most bands might constitute playing around with one of their less appreciated album tracks, but Miike Snow are intent that those faithful many who have turned out to pack out the Liverpool Masque on a sub zero Tuesday night will not hear a band turn up, play their album, and leave. As a result, not only is crowd favourite “Cult Logic” stripped to pieces, built up and stretched out into their epic opener, but many other tracks receive the same treatment, not least the pulsating “Animal”, which only hit #98 on the UK singles chart, yet is received like it kept Jedward off the top spot for an entire month.

Although jibing Daft Punk comparisons may seem strangely founded if you had seen the girl in front of me who seemed near to climaxing throughout most of the gig, and equally intent on swinging around her inexplicably enormous handbag, Miike Snow regularly manage to lower the pulse of their live set, without losing momentum or interest. In fact, the introspective “Sans Soleil” was the undisputed highlight of their set. If I had been nearer the back, a tear would have been shed (keep it on the QT, mind).

Ultimately, coupled with the fact that they were preceded by the intriguing Run Toto Run (who I have been monitoring for a while, so now would seem the perfect opportunity to finally mention them), Miike Snow have mastered the rarely perfected art of playing a proper live gig, not simply playing your songs in a live setting. Those who were there will know exactly why it’s hard to stop me enthusing about their live set, and those who weren’t there need to go and experience it first-hand. Just don’t laugh at their masks.

Run Toto Run – Catchy My Breath

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Genuinely depressed that the top 3 selling singles on the UK iTunes at the time of writing are the atrociously flaccid and characterless “Fireflies” (written by the equally beige and appalling Owl City, who also wrote an entire song about a trip to the dentist – no joke, unfortunately), the debut single from the fucking irritating teenage sensations Jedward (who only became famous because even the undemanding X Factor audience realised that they didn’t possess a single piece of laudable musicianship between the brain-dead two of them )  and a ridiculously obvious single from the cast of Glee; yet another example that youth culture is seriously and extremely fucked.

I really shouldn’t care. I should be used to this – lots of people enjoy exceptionally tired and mundane music, and that should be fine. But it’s not fine, at all. Put simply, it’s not fine because if you bother to even scratch the surface of what’s beneath the vapid layer of shit that Simon Cowell (don’t get me started on him, that would require another post) et al have spread over the charts, there has arguably never been more of a wealth of fantastic music, of all genres. It’s not a case of being a fan of pop music, or being a fan of alternative music; there’s mounds of insanely brilliant and affecting pop music out there, it just tends to get ignored because they don’t have EMI’s chequebook behind them.

What has made this dire situation even worse (if that was possible) is that Miike Snow released “Silvia” last week – to general disdain and lack of reaction. I’m not going to argue that “Silvia” is their strongest single; it’s not, but it had more than enough instant appeal to scratch the charts. Here we have a group of super-producers who between them have written hits for Kylie, Britney and Kelis, have released a hugely critically acclaimed album within the past year, and yet when they release just one of these agonisingly perfect pop songs onto the shit munching public, the reaction is just…. non existent. It’s clear that something’s wrong. The great music is there, and it’s being recognised more and more by a music loving community that, ironically, barely buys music anymore, whilst meeting nothing more than indifference from the record buying public. The trouble is that, as fun as ridiculing the indefensible Own City is, it’s going to make next to no difference, and that if we genuinely want things to change, then we’re going to have to do something about it. I’ve no idea how this is going to happen but… you know… if I find the answer I’ll let you know.

This is really more than convenient, because in the past 24 hours I stumbled across this Netksy drum and bass remix of “Black & Blue”. I’ve also been completely hammering their debut album for next to no reason in the past week – and here’s my album highlight that I have somehow not managed to mention yet.

Miike Snow – Black And Blue (Netsky Remix)