Daughter, Art School, Glasgow, review: Boldly attention-grabbing passages in an engaging show

Contrast the sense of dream-like detachment in Elena Tonra's vocal with the vividly apparent nervousness when she speaks. She admits it herself - this is the first date of a UK tour in support of the 4AD-signed band's soon-to-be-released second album Not to Disappear, and there appears to be a bit of settling going on. She begins to tell us about she and her partner and fellow guitarist Igor Haefeli's earlier train journey up from London, and only appears to unwind when the story about the croissant is revealed; how she spent the whole journey with one stuck to her backside.

Every time the playing starts, the sense of airy calm seems beamed in from a higher plane where flattened bread products aren't a worry. Expanded to a live quartet from a recorded trio, Daughter are equal parts shoegaze and Cocteau Twins. Tonra's vocal is flawless on tracks like the (literally) naked emotional confession of 'Doing the Right Thing' and 'Youth', an unlikely anthem for the joyful recklessness of inexperience, high-pitched and floating over gently chiming guitars. If their less arresting moments feel somewhat like an aural comfort blanket, there are also boldly attention-grabbing passages like 'Winter's club-like beat and the murmuring, blood-rushing-through-the-eardrum rhythms of 'Shallows' and 'Numbers'. They put on an engaging show; there's no reason to be nervous about its impact.