Music, Style & Culture

Safari, Peter Parkers, London

A bit like the bastard love child of the Rapture and (dare I say it?) Klaxons.

Hertfordshire. Once famed for providing us with such musical luminaries as Paul Young, Geri Halliwell and George Michael. But lately, something strange has been dropped into them there waters, and sleepy suburbia has been merrily spewing forth bands like Gallows, Enter Shikari, and Friendly Fires with gleeful abundance. Our hosts for the evening, Safari, certainly have more in common with the 'Fires than any of their other, angrier, Hertfordshire cousins, producing a similar hybrid mix of sharp indie guitars, electro keyboards and tribal drum beats. And tonight, the electro-clash five piece, formerly known as Model Horror, are road testing the new name and the new material in a teeny club in Soho.

8pm has barely passed us by and Safari are already forcing the temperature to rise and even the most cynical feet to start tapping. In a shock challenge to 'the hardest working band in pop' crown (current holders: Sky Larkin), the band are playing two gigs on the same night, and can't hang around. Any worries that they'll be conserving their energy for later during this set are quickly allayed, for if anything is being held back, it certainly doesn't show.

If there is a stand out track tonight, it's probably debut single 'Quicksand', which is a bit like the bastard love child of the Rapture and (dare I say it?) Klaxons, it's the perfect symmetry of energy and urgency. By the end of their short set, they're sweating up a good storm, having demanded both audience participation (which they didn't really get, it's a bit early) and that we all go to the shop upstairs and buy more guitars.

From the offset, the band are surrounded by camera phones being held aloft, giving rise to the suspicion that they might be on the cusp of something bigger than the toilet circuit. But, there's an undeniable, niggling doubt over Safari after tonight's performance. Whilst they're eminently danceable to, they're clearly working hard, and they're very, for want of a better word, polished, tonight's set doesn't appear to contain a truly memorable hit – there's no earworm lingering long after the band clear out of the venue and on to their next gig. Right now, that makes them a little disposable, but leaves us with feeling that, given hard work, time and perhaps a bit of nurturing, Safari could be so good indeed.