If anyone saw Fear and Delight last year, they’d be familiar with The Correspondents: a self professed ‘electro-swing’ duo that goes from backing band to intimate live act at this year’s Fringe.

The last Correspondents show I attended was a Fear and Delight session that was unfortunately cut short due to rain. While Fear and Delight was set up as a space-y cabaret (befitting its large outdoor setting), The Correspondents readily transitioned from heady atmospherics of the former, to a sweaty show built on rhythm, all whilst retaining elements of both. Brass samples and jungle beats artfully jarred against each other, with what the dilettante in me can only call jazzy beatboxing worked as a second rhythm section, tying the whole thing together. A special mention has to be made to the catchy opener, which recalled the piano riff in TVC 15 over a drum n’ bass beat.

With only two days notice through Facebook, the hastily put together midnight gig looked as though it would barely fill the Garden of Unearthly Delights’ Deluxe Pavilion. This wasn’t the case as the show started and the crowd condensed from all sides and filled the floor. Composed almost entirely of loyal fans, the interaction between lead MC Mr. Bruce and the crowd felt natural and dynamic, bringing an energy to the show that culminated in a compact stage dive towards the end of the night.

I left the Deluxe Pavilion feeling that the entire show finished a bit too quickly. This was probably more a testament to the relentless pace The Correspondents kept from beginning through to end than a criticism; and, if their string of Glastonbury performances is anything to go by, it’s an act that scales nicely with the size of its standing audience.

4 out of 5 stars

-Tin Do