English Teacher, Chubby Cat and Expresso Transatlantico bring Eurosonic to a rousing close

I’m not sure exactly when it happened but since the last time I was here Groningen cyclists have declared war on pedestrians. No matter where you're standing there’s always somebody on a saddle trying to mow you down and then screaming at you for not having the 360 degree vision to see them silently coming. It’s therefore after several near-death experiences that I make it to the safety of Maas where there’s a load of Eurosonic buzz acts playing tonight.

First up are Bulgarian foursome Trigaida, already big in the Balkans and hoping to find themselves a wider audience. Fronted by Asya Pincheva who has a voice you just want to wrap yourself up in, their folktronica has a real Europe meets Asia feel, and has the potential to light up many an adventurous dancefloor. They get extra marks for the curiously shaped bagpipes and didgeridoo-style contraption that multi-instrumentalist Georgi Marinov switches between.

They may be a nightmare to Google, but English Teacher are new favourite band levels of awesome. The Leeds combo’s none too secret weapon is Lily Fontaine, a singer capable of going from the proverbial whisper to a scream and whose ruminations on the absurdities and obscenities of modern life - “Bring out the dead and give them a hashtag” - reminds this punk veteran of X-Ray Spex’s Poly Styrene, which is one of the greatest compliments I could pay anybody.

It's indie but not necessarily as we know it with the likes of 'Mastermind Specialism' and 'A55' as musically adventurous as they are lyrically dextrous. Their finest three minutes, though, is ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’, which halfway through bursts into the most celestial noise you’re going to hear this or any other year.

Inspired by Clockwork Orange, new song 'You Blistered My Paint' finds the drummer taking a well-earned breather as Fontaine goes all jazzy à la Amy Winehouse. "I've been drinking," she confesses afterwards. Haven't we all.

They end with new single 'Albert Road', an emotionally-charged and rather funky number that builds and builds... and then builds some more. Best band of the festival? Very possibly.

The educational theme continues later in Vera, the venue from whose attic John Peel used to broadcast and home tonight for forty frenzied minutes to University, a four-piece from Crewe whose emo-flecked hardcore makes IDLES sound like The Corrs in comparison.

Zack Bower doesn't so much sing as primal scream his way through tracks like 'The History Of Iron Maiden Pt. 2', which - whisper it quietly - is beneath all the bluster quite melodic.

They also have a masked member sat stage-right playing computer games on a laptop, which has to be the best gig since Bez shook his maracas for the Mondays.

Back in Maas, it's the turn of Berlin-based Serb Iva Lorens to try and impress the assembled music industry heads. Performed in her native tongue, the likes of 'Udarci' and 'Hej (Nisi Vise Isti)' - hooray for Shazam! - have a breathy electropop feel that penetrates the language barrier. One of the songs that Shazam can't identify sounds like a slowed down 'Sweet Child Of Mined' and is ace.

It may be minus-four outside, but in Expresso Transatlantico's heart it's always sunny. From Lisbon but also trading in Brazilian and African rhythms, they're one of those bands you'd happily dance your socks off to at a festival, which is precisely what Eurosonic is about. Fronted by the Portuguese Justin Hawkins - the guy's a serious guitar virtuoso and has great hair - they also fuck with those traditions in a Pogues-ian fashion and get rewarded at the end with a thunderous ovation.

From Estonia with much love comes Daniel Levi, a luxuriantly-tressed Canadian living in Baltic exile whose obvious joy at being on stage shines through. Whilst not reinventing the wheel, his contagious funk-pop - think Jamiroquai meets Level 42 - gets the whole room gyrating in '70s disco fashion.

I've been waiting a long time for my first live glimpse of Chubby Cat, the Cork singer who's been in Hot Press' A&R Dept. so regularly that she could claim squatter's rights. It's a big gig for the young BIMM graduate and she royally rises to the occasion. Equal parts pop, indie, R&B, dance and torch singer - she really is a musical chameleon - Chubby Cat exudes charisma and is going to be a star.

Pictured above: Expresso Transatlantico