Gig review: Eagleowl, Edinburgh

"Thanks for being so quiet," murmured Eagleowl's chief vocalist Bartholemew Owl, "it's all so nerve-racking." There was no need to be so nervous. The quintet's music was perfect and the audience perfectly behaved.

Eagleowl are one of the finest groups currently populating Edinburgh's rich scene, who make music which demands attention and an investment of time, and which rewards the listener with strong, emphatic lyricism and the sense that every single note has been delicately chosen and placed with care. The opening song came in on a softly picked guitar and lingered long on a whisper of feedback and Clarissa Cheong's sad double bass, with Owl and Cheong dispiritedly feuding "we can't do this any more… you get away with murder".

In case this all sounds drab, it wasn't: rather, this is music which soaks into the heart and the soul like summertime rain, always threatening a crescendo but never quite giving in to that great leap. "It's so funny / how we don't f*** any more," they sang in a heartbroken parody of Cliff Richard, a cynical touch Woody Allen would surely have approved of. Then finally, coming in on a martial drumbeat, the very final song at last began to thrash and kick and fight for its life, as if it didn't want this wonderful set to end any more than we did.