Mutes must have had a killer 2017, completing their mutation from their dream-scape origins into a full-blooded krautrock punk band. Their debut album ‘No Desire’ was one of the best things to come out of the Second City last year, an ambitious and focused post-punk sprawl which managed to make the gut-punching grunge single ‘A Burial’ and the glacial ambience of ‘No Centre’ seem like totally natural bedfellows. It’s the kind of chaotic, gluttonous alternative rock music that Birmingham specialises in, bursting at the seams with corroded guitar noise, pointed in its sonic attack. Mutes seem categorically restless, never satisfied, always reaching for a new way to distort, to destroy, to disrupt their own signal: dedicated to sonic reinvention. Rumour has it they’re working on a new album already, so if you haven’t treated yourself to some Mutes yet, go get sweaty and unruffled at the Dark Horse – for free, no less. With support from Witch Fever and Cave Girl.

Fri 16 Feb, 9pm at The Dark Horse, 145 Alcester Rd, Moseley, Birmingham B13 8JP. www.darkhorsemoseley.co.uk