 | | Shmoo (pic: Antony O'Hanlon) |
With Cursor Miner and Lal mysteriously missing from the bill, the lounge line-up opened with the refreshingly cool vocals of Shmoo frontwoman Rowena Scott. As her chocolate lyrics rose effortless above the running electronic beats, it was clear to see that that the band were perfectly pitched for their chilled out setting,  | | Shmoo (pic: Antony O'Hanlon) |
With the sexy roll of tracks like Plaything, Shmoo bring together a heady mix of sounds. Take a little Zero 7 smooth and a lot of Goldfrapp cool and you’ll be somewhere close to the sound of Shmoo. In short, the perfect example of what Futuresonic is all about. Moving on, Beats for Beginners took to the stage with the classic electronica of When Robots Attack. But though the old favourites were there, it soon became clear that the band themselves were a little distracted.  | | Beats for Beginners (pic: Antony O'Hanlon) |
Lacking their usual electric punch as the set continued, you couldn’t help but feel that they were simply going through the motions. And though Mike TV may have prepared us for the set being a short blast of tracks from the new album, the crowd were about to be faced with the disappointing realisation of just how short a blast it would be. Winding up with the title track of the new record, Laser Beams for Eyes, a familiar flash of the usual Beats energy pulsed through Kro, but as soon as it came, they were gone again in a set that was as quick as it was disappointing. In fairness to them, they never realised they would be headlining, but a few more tunes wouldn’t have hurt. | 
