Sian Ahern describes her voice as “an instrument” rather than a outlet for narrative in Eaux songs, and this blurred distinction between the mechanical and the organic is at the heart of much of the output of the London-based trio. Despite being associated with a mind-boggling number of adjectives and portmanteau genres in the music press - apart from ‘electronic’ - Eaux try their hardest to not be pinned down. Indeed the only aspect the songs from their new album Plastics have in common, is a building of layers of rhythm and instrumentation one on top of the other throughout a song, and a deep, rolling crescendo, borne out of the fact that these songs were created in jams, hours of playing together crystallised into five minute songs.

A three-piece on a tiny stage in Dalston’s Birthdays, Ben Cross to the left with a guitar, Ahern in the middle on a drum machine and Stephen Warrington to the right on synths, the night begins with a heartbeat over the speakers and shimmering leopard print projected on the back wall. A gradual build of the beat over the course of each song climaxes not in a chorus, but instead in static, as machine-sounds jostle about with Sian’s vocals and fall about against each other - a beat underneath an arpeggio, an arpeggio underneath a chord, a chord underneath an echo. Ahern stands onstage, eyes closed in the light, cranking the reverb up to create a thousand ghost Sians in the background, twisting around each other.

Despite crackles and loops humming like monitors in a hospital ward, there is a level of human feeling in the songs from Plastics, not within the lyrics (which are almost like sonic texture rather than words), but within the songs themselves. Watching the crowd bob up and down, it is obvious that this is dance music - ‘Peace Makes Plenty’ is Donna Summer anti-disco, in which Ahern’s Kate Bush howl becomes a proto-house version of the seventies club scene - but at the same time as Eaux convinces their audience to move, their music also instills in its listener a sense of dread. Particularly with the ebb of Cross’s malevolent bass that forms the tide of ‘Sleeper’, one has the uncanny feeling that the notes are just the beginning, that something is approaching. Every time another part gets dropped in, a song that starts as dark techno gradually segues into baroque electronica before finally descending into noise.

Although watching Eaux working with their machines is a bit like listening to Google’s DeepMind conducting an orchestra, the lines between the biological and the organic are hazy. Although it’s digital music, Eaux don’t bother with laptops. Even Hans Lo’s audio-visuals are strikingly analogue, projecting wobbling patterns onto the back of the stage with a projector. On this day in June 2014, on which a computer has passed the Turing test and been mistaken for a human, Eaux are a reminder that whilst electronic programmes are making leaps to close the gap between a system of circuits and sentience, humans are on their way to absorbing that technology to create human music that effectively mimics the blurred line between the two.

After a string of successful European dates and festival appearances in 2013, Florida post-punk outfit Merchandise returned to London on June 9 in anticipation of their new release After the End (August 25), their first on 4AD.

Following support from Danish group Lower who set the mood with a raucous set packed with thunderous drum solos, Merchandise took to the stage with enigmatic frontman Carson Cox announcing, “We’re merchandise from Tampa Bay and we finally have some new material for the UK… so we’ll see how it goes.”

Spoiler: It went well.

Launching into two of these new tracks, Cox staggers carelessly around the stage throwing himself and his instruments around, swiftly ditching his guitar for a tambourine with the exclamation of “fuck it!” so he can concentrate on his singing duties. His unique vocals and the confident delivery of new material primes the crowd for the rest of the performance which also spans Children of Desire and Totale Night.

In keeping with Merchandise’s contrary attitude to their craft, the band take a different direction to usual performances for crowd favourite ‘Time’ from the independently released Children of Desire. Normally focusing on the track’s absorbing bass-line, they instead rely on guitarist Dave Vassalotti’s reverb and Cox’s vocals, treating the audience to a unique performance which builds the atmosphere.

The only shortcoming of the performance is that the crowd's a little sparse. Moving to Islington Assembly Hall, a larger venue than their previous London date in The 100 Club, it feels like they haven’t quite bridged the gap in capacity. However Cox & co. don’t let this distract them and make sure that those not in attendance are missing out.

Cox repeatedly slurs “swing and a miss” throughout – though he couldn’t have been further from the truth. Brought on for a second encore of ‘Become What You Are’, Merchandise create a frenzy in the remaining crowd, which Cox himself ends up in. With stage invasions and Cox singing from the pit, the final song of their 1 hour 20 set reaches it's peak in both volume and hysteria that they have been threatening to hit, leaving the audience satisfied, and rather dehydrated.

There quite simply is no formula to a Merchandise performance, nor should there be, as heads of the DIY-punk scene. And this is exactly why it works.

Beaches Brew is now in its third year and, like last month's Threadfest event in Bradford, is a free festival. Albeit on a beach in Italy rather than in a wet West Yorkshire city.

A small concern, in terms of location and the overall number of acts on the bill, it nevertheless aims high with the level of bands it attracts (a feature of all the summer shows being put on at the venue by Bronson Productions it seems). This year's headliners being Lee Ranaldo & The Dust, Suuns and Neutral Milk Hotel.

What let things down a bit this time around, however, was the rather sparse information on the event website. Stronger advice to stay by the venue rather than in the town of Ravenna itself would have been of use, as well as a proper paragraph about the local buses (of the three mentioned the 60 no longer seems to run and the latest one for a return to town is only at 22:00, making it impossible to see the later bands if you have catch that).

Still, after taking the site's information at face value, I hopped on a bus on the first night (a Tuesday, oddly enough) and arrived in good time to catch Speedy Ortiz opening up the show. Pleased to be playing their first show in Italy their set included such numbers as 'Basketball' and 'Cloud' and they were pleasingly louder and edgier than expected from their recorded work. Disappears were up next and, other minor faults aside, it was clear that with each night's show needing to end by midnight there was to be no messing about in terms of getting bands on stage on time. Theirs was a solid set with no flab as they aimed to fit in as many tracks as possible in their 45 minute or so slot. Pond were to play third on the bill & were one of the bands I was keenest to see but by that point the final 75 bus of the night was due so they and Lee Ranaldo's performances had to be missed.

Determined to see the whole of Wednesday night's bill & with a Twitter appeal for a lift meeting with no luck a bike was obtained and the 20 mile round-trip undertaken that way. With no stage times available openers Be Forest ended up being missed & so Dutch trio Hallo Venray ended up becoming tonight's first entertainers. Bringing to mind bands such as Redd Kross these veterans of Holland's indie rock scene attracted a good pre-sunset crowd with 'Simple' and 'Leather On My Soul' (the title track from their current album) amongst others. Swearing At Motorists soon followed, bringing a shift of tempo with their guitar & drums blend of blues & garage lending them a two man JSBX feel. Playing "a bunch of sad and angry songs" the pair overcame a lack of vocals in the monitors and a lack of beer to deliver a fun performance that included singer Dave Doughman stagediving in between songs from across the band's 20 year career. 

Wednesday's penultimate band were relative youngsters Cloud Nothings so the tempo was cranked up a further notch as they powered through selections from current album Here And Nowhere Else and its three predecessors. the crowd were well warmed up by this point in the night and the speed of the songs they were now getting to hear caused them to form a small mosh pit and indulge in some crowd surfing whilst I found myself concentrating on drummer Jayson Gerycz and his windmill-like pulverising of his kit. Closing out with something like a ten minute plus track the crowd were very sorry to see them go. Tonight's final act were Suuns so things onstage calmed down somewhat although the crowd were as appreciative as ever, clearly having eagerly anticipated the arrival of the Montreal quartet to the stage. '2020' got an early outing in the set and from then on the audience were putty in the band's hands. A thoroughly good night of free entertainment and my lack of any bike lights thankfully didn't get me killed as I pedaled back to base. 

That was though my final involvement with Beaches Brew this time around. A lift fell through the following night, taxis weren't a cheap option and the cycle was easy enough one night but not something to be repeated so soon. I'll make the trip back in 2015 and can on the whole recommend that you do too but camp over the road from Hana Bi or get a room close by otherwise, if you're not driving, the free entertainment could become as expensive as any other festival which kind of defeats the purpose.

Many thanks to Roberta for being a great host and for the loan of the bicycle.    

The Bodega’s a small venue, so it’s surprising to find it more or less empty as we walk in.  Feeling a bit guilty about missing the support act Climbing Boys, we grab a drink and stake out a spot in the barren space in front of the stage.

The nice thing about a venue like The Bodega is that it’s cosy; when the Howling Bells come out we’re close enough to them that we could reach out and touch front woman Juanita Stein, should we get the urge (we manage to restrain ourselves).  Odd though, that there’s no fanfare to the start of the performance.  There’s no applause as the quartet assemble themselves on stage – not even a cheer.  The lights remain off until their instruments are in hand and they open with ‘Paris’.

The band is out to promote their new album Heartstrings, which comes out the next day.  A fan from the band’s early days, I must admit I don’t own their last album and haven’t heard much from the new one, so I’m expecting to drift through the gig without knowing much – but only two songs in and familiar songs come in the way of ‘Blessed Night’ and ‘Ballad For The Bleeding Hearts’, amongst others.

It’s always nice to get a bit of chat from the band at a gig, but this is lacking tonight.  We’re about half an hour in before Juanita finally addresses us, and as the room falls silent someone from the back of the room – which has filled up somewhat – shouts, “You’re awesome!” With a bashful smile, Juanita replies, “Well thank you,” before introducing a track from the new record.  It gets a good reaction from the audience who are nodding along to the music, which is similar to their early stuff, if a little rockier.

The rest of the gig showcases songs old and new; there’s a beautiful, stripped back version of ‘Paper Heart’, and ‘Setting Sun’ gets the room excited – it’s by far the most popular track of the night.  Sometimes slower songs in a set become a bit dull when you’re used to the pacier ones, but tonight everything is enthralling.  Juanita sways and writhes around whilst strumming her guitar and the rest of the band is equally lost in the music.  Instead of looking at our watch or phone, we find ourselves getting just as involved, and as we look around the room, it seems we’re not alone – and the cheers and whoops get louder as the night goes on.

Before we know it though, Howling Bells bring the gig to a close.  “I’d be an awful singer if I didn’t promote the record,” Juanita smirks as the band end with new song ‘Reverie’, full of thumping, thrashing drums driving things forward.  With that, they’re gone.

In the shortest encore we’ve ever seen, we’re treated to ‘Broken Bones’, before the four-piece disappear off again – just as the audience seems to be getting going.  It’s been a good night; a great gig full of wonderfully dreamy vocals, heartfelt lyrics and moody music.  Howling Bells are back, and they’re on form.