Beyonds

The current Western obsession with band reunions has found its Japanese analogue in groups like Beyonds, a quartet who helped kickstart the '90s melocore boom only to split up before they could reap the benefits. Since returning to the live circuit in 2005, they've delivered a pair of workmanlike albums, the second of which, Heiseimuku, was released just last month. All of which is nice enough, but we'd go to this just for support band Envy, whose performance at last weekend's Kaikoo Popwave Festival – fusing the full-throttle assault of hardcore with the ecstatic post-rockisms of Mogwai – was staggeringly good. Shambolic hip hoppers ECD + Illicit Tsuboi and incorrigible female duo M.A.G.O. also feature.