DIIV’s new album Is The Is Are came out last month, but it was a long and arduous road to get to the point there was any music to release. Lead singer and songwriter Zachary Cole Smith dons the much familiar archetype of tortured artist, with addiction and arrests littering the journey from 2012’s acclaimed Oshin to the equally hyped and regarded latest record. Swirling guitar lines build and build, creating cacophonies from melodies as we are invited to let the wave crash over us and give into the overwhelming sound wanting to immerse us. Smith’s fuzzy and faded lyrics elude to his experience, but it’s within the unrelenting sonic experience we get our ears and eyes opened to his highest and lowest places.

Thu Mar 17, Birmingham Institute, 78 Digbeth, Birmingham B5 6DY. Tel: 0121 643 0428 7pm, £11.50 Tickets: www.o2institutebirmingham.co.uk