Live Report: Unloved, Whelan's

Imagine the soundtracks of David Lynch, Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota made love to the work of 1960's pop singers Lee Hazlewood, Nancy Sinatra and The Shangri Las. The offspring would sound like Unloved, the project of Northern Irish musician and composer David Holmes (Out of Sight, Ocean's Eleven).

Alongside percussionist Holmes in Unloved is another renowned composer Keefus Ciancia (True Detective). He plays keyboards, alongside Jade Vincent on vocals. Together the three create slow hypnotic love songs tinged with danger. Their tracks feel even more palpable in the flesh, their sensuality lingering in the Whelan's venue like sweet perfume.

An extended moody intro - with strange ambient noise and off-rhythm drumming creating an otherworldly feel - eventually mutates into 'I Could Tell You But I'd Have to Kill'. This is one of many Unloved songs to feature in hit series Killing Eve, focusing on the strange romance between an MI5 agent and the assassin she's tasked to track down. The opener, gliding between the delicate and the dark, the carnal and creepy, couldn't be more perfect for the show.

Vincent's low smoky vocals are captivating. They cause the audience to prick up their ears and listen intensely to tales of relationship woes on tracks like 'Heartbreak', 'Remember' and 'Guilty of Love'. About half-way through the set, just as the band's highly stylised throwback pastiche starts to wear thin, Unloved kick proceedings up a notch. Ending strong with the fast-paced drum driven songs 'Crash Boom Bang', 'When a Woman is Around' and 'This is the Time', the group definitely seduced the Whelan's crowd - another notch in Holmes' increasingly impressive CV.