Formal Sppeedwear

Formal Sppeedwear play 1990 on Saturday 31 October, brought to Glasgow by 432. They're a new wave outfit from Stoke-on-Trent, and this is their only Glasgow date on the bill.

Their sound sits at the intersection of new wave, synth pop and art rock. They build their songs around geometric riffs, elastic bass lines and off-kilter percussive work, and they describe the result as rewiring ideas from the golden era of recording technology into a dense tangle of noise. If those descriptions feel a bit abstract, it's easier to think of them as a new wave teacup from Stoke-on-Trent, blending the electronic pop of Yellow Magic Orchestra, the motorik drive of Neu and the jerky, satirical energy of DEVO.

It's a particular kind of lineage to draw on. Yellow Magic Orchestra brought the synth-pop sensibility, Neu provided the steady, repetitive pulse, and DEVO added the art-rock eccentricity. When you put them together, you get a band that's as much about the groove as it is about the noise, with the bass and percussion doing a lot of the heavy lifting. The 'golden era of recording technology' they mention points to a specific kind of analogue warmth and quirk, the sort of sound that feels like it's being pushed through a piece of gear that's seen better days.

Doors open at 19:00, and the set runs from 19:00 to 22:00, so it's a full evening's worth of music. Tickets start from £14.70, and the venue is 1990 in the city centre, G2 3LG.