Live Report: Hilary Woods at The Sugar Club

A hush falls in the opulent rows of seating at the Sugar Club as a wave of textured drone rises  - Hilary Woods is onstage, flanked by rising smoke and this is her way of intro, a signifier of her dark, textured minimalist soundscapes. Once she takes a seat at her keyboard, the spell is complete. Next month, she plays a church in Philadelphia - but tonight she turns this converted cinema in D2 into gothic chapel of sorts. This done not just through aesthetic means, but also through the sense of space found in her compositions - a space that allows them to live, breathe and grow to new proportions.

Minimalist it may be, but the songwriting is effective too. Tonight the set mostly consists of songs from debut album Colt, an early frontrunner for the Choice Prize. ‘Take Him In’ is a highlight, built around an arresting mantra - “take him in for he is good and he is kind and he is mine”.

Woods is helped by a drummer, sometimes there more to provide texture than rhythm - there’s an odd moment where he plays a cymbal with a bow, and his rhythms take centre stage on perhaps the best song of the night  ‘Jesus Said’.

Woods spent her late teens touring the world with JJ72, and has frequently expressed her subsequent aversion to that kind of jet-set schedule. Opportunities to step into her bewitching world will prove rare - so seize them.