Credit: Mahlin Dahlberg - We are Soldiers

If Sweden’s footballers are anything like their musicians then England better prepare to face an attack on both fronts at next month’s World Cup.

A Swedish double bill at Kilburn’s leading venue The Luminaire provided an intriguing insight into the disparate poles that Sweden’s new electro-pop bands are occupying.  

We Are Soldiers Who Have Guns promised ethereal soundscapes sung by Mahlin Dahlberg, the leading light in Swedish stars Douglas Heart, and guitarist Robert Tenevall. The band are a product of Sweden’s bedroom-tapes era but judging by their set they are now taking their cue from jewellery boxes and musical mobiles.

Yes, ‘Songs That No One Will Hear’ and ‘Damn Those TV Shows’ are pretty and Dahlberg’s clear voice chimes sweetly and would reach across many a fjord but their delivery is so lethargic you wonder how long it took them to get out of bed. It is Joy Zipper with a lobotomy; Cat Power without her meow. The live performance is not helped by Dahlberg and Tenevall’s habit of swaying side-to-side in unison.

The audience, expecting good things from a band whose latest Eponymous EP on Stereo test kit records was produced by Jon F Kennedy, had welcomed them enthusiastically. But as the assembled soaked up the milky-warm, bedtime music the room quickly descended into a game of musical statues.

Thank goodness then for Jeniferever, who arrived on stage with a jolt of soaring guitar overlays and relentless drums to shake us from our slumber.

The Swedish four-piece draw comparisons with Icelandic sound artists Sigur Rós but be careful because Jeniferever are Sigur Rós for the night before and not the hangover. Jeniferver borrow electronica interplays from Four Tet and forge them with painful guitar meshes stolen from Hope of the States and Bright Eyes.

 ‘You Only Move Twice’ and ‘Swimming Eyes’ – taken from this year’s album ‘Choose A Bright Morning’ – showed the band at their swooning, melancholic best. Singer Kristofer Jönson and his Napolean Dynamite styling fronts the band but the heart of Jeniferever beats from Fredrik Aspelin’s drumkit. Aspelin kept the band’s often shambolic set rolling effortlessly forward with dead perfect loops as his face turned to the side in soulful solace.