The Horrors - O2 Academy Bournemouth

FOR those curious few that made it along, this was a sensory experience that left your ears and eyes ringing for hours after. It was an uncompromising show from start to finish that rewarded the open-minded Bournemouth audience with something different.

The Horrors have been pushing the sonic boundaries since 2007 with the fuzzy Goth/punk of debut album, Strange House. But it took 2009's follow-up Primary Colours with its icy new-wave soundscapes, media hype and a Mercury Music Award nomination to finally get the band noticed.

While 2011's album Skying and this year's Luminous have since trodden a more progressive and electronic path. The night opened with the recent psychedelic strains of Chasing Shadows before cascading into the baggy groove of In And Out Of Sight.

Older material seamlessly flowed with Who Can Say, Scarlet Fields and Sea Within A Sea all given an energetic repackaging. All the while, front man Faris Badwan stalked the stage and occasionally emerged from the shadows to be starkly framed by the lasers and strobe lighting.

The night ended with a pulverising rendition of I See You and a gloriously droning encore that the Velvet Underground or Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd would have been chuffed with. The Horrors have undoubtedly got the creativity and musical talent to produce something truly great, but only time will tell.

Pat Gough