I have to confess that the first time I caught Lost from Atlas performing, I wasn't immensely impressed. It wasn't that I could fault their technical competence, but the fact that they seemed a little self-satisfied, the way musos sometimes are. Having seen them again since, I found myself warming to them rather more, and tonight, they won me over. The three-piece's noodlesome jazz-infused post- math- rock instrumentals place the emphasis on the rock element. There are some big riffs, which sometimes lurch into Shellac territory, producing the sort of racket That Fucking Tank would make if they had a bass, and some cymbals on their drum kit.
There's an abundance of finger-tapping and other examples of flamboyant fretwork, but it's all held tightly together by a robust bass and some superlative jazz drumming. There are key and tempo changes all over the place, and it looks like what I had mistaken for smugness was, in fact, extreme concentration.
A lot has happened in the camp of The Pattern Theory since I last saw them, low on the bill, at the Brudenell in Leeds a couple or so years ago. Having decamped and relocated to Berlin, they've stripped down to a three-piece, and written and recorded their debut album. The first thing that strikes me tonight is just how incredibly tight they are. Scratch that: the first thing that strikes me is a long guitar drone by way of an introduction, and it's clear that they've evolved, incorporating weightier elements into their sound. Then, when they break into the kind of twiddly post-rock math-rock I remember them for, and as is showcased on their EP from 2007, I'm struck by how tight they are.
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That they're remarkable musicians was never in question, but the rapid and complex changes of direction - the compositions squirm and leap in all directions, and never when one might expect them to - are so precise it's breathtaking. Perhaps it's the power-trio lineup, or perhaps it's the proverbial German efficiency that's had an influence, but the simple fact is that they're jaw-droppingly together, a combination of dilligent rehearsal and intuitive playing. Within those immaculately-planned and highly intricate compositions, however, they still create plenty of space for texture and some genuinely captivating guitar motifs, as well as some xylophone detail. It's the kind of music that carries the listener away, and at the end of the set I was left wondering where the time went.
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