The real beauty of the big sprawling, city wide music marathon that is Sound City is the joyous randomness of it all - sure, it’s great to see Black Lips and co, and to sing along to our favourite local heroes, but save time to go off the grid and dive into something, well, something a little more out there. And a Nova Scotia showcase…well, you can’t get much more random than that, can you? Let’s face it Halifax, musically speaking, has previously only brought to mind ‘Isa Isa Baby’ to us. And that’s resolutely not a good thing.

Still, there are interesting sonic fronts up there in the Canadian Atlantic seaboard. As this lot are happy to show…

In Flight Safety create the fuzzy, feelgood FM indie rock that the Finn Brothers, Keane and Snow Patrol do so well. Hook laden, soaring choruses and all those things the new TopGear compilation CD compilers hungrily seek - if that’s your bag, this could be the one for you.

Track Record: For an instant In Flight Safety manual, check out We Are Empire My Dear: a more radio-friendly set of glowing, intelligent pop you’d be hard pressed to find. 7/10

Live Chops: They’ve just played Brighton’s Great Escape and went down a storm - they’ve been gigging for the best part of a decade, so you shouldn’t have any need to find the route to the nearest available emergency exit. 8/10

Supporting Acts: Bluesy rocker Carmen Townsend is unlikely to leave any man standing, and the prodigiously be-bearded Ben Caplan is your Seasick Steve with bar-room piano, growling out cautionary tales and sea-shanty singalongs. 8/10

Venue: Upstairs at Heebies? Well, it’s a good sized space, so shouldn’t prove too difficult to recreate that salty Nova Scotia warehouse vibe. Labatt’s Blues all round, bartender 7/10

Nova Scotia Showcase
In-Flight Safety
Carmen Townsend
Ben Caplan

Liverpool Sound City
Friday 20th May
Heebie Jeebies 1st Floor