The mid-point of Incubate in 2015 began with a band who, instrumentally at least, share an idea with Royal Blood. Youff are a drums and bass noise duo from Belgium and what they possibly currently lack in originality they more than make up for in energy. Although sparsely lit too the effective strobing amply shows up the speed at which the drummer has to hammer away at the kit to set the frenetic pace, his hands looking Wolverine-like as the light fires.

Old school Dutch grindcore in the shape of Kru$h came next at Little Devil. Bringing to mind such legends of the scene as Doom the dual-vocalled five piece growled and screeched their way through a set of tight, short numbers without a dancer in sight, ably showing up the differences in temperament between this and the hardcore audience despite the shared weight and pace of sound.

Over at Extase Beasts were tonight's third bit of entertainment. Only unfortunately they weren't that entertaining. The Metallica t-shirt was maybe a giveaway. Straightforward rock saw me make the second quickest decision and exit of the night. A walk back up the road to Hall Of Fame was in order for some more hardcore to hopefully invigorate the night but, although certainly loud, Vvovnds were curiously unengaging. True they were hampered by a mysterious crackling coming from the speakers but despite the battering they gave their instruments they seemed to just be going through the motions.

Three Trapped Tigers were tonight's opening act at Midi and were received well by a crowd who clearly knew who they'd come to see. Playing mostly new material they were a bit let down in the vocal department but otherwise were note-perfect and clearly happy to be back on a European jaunt after a few years away. Next door at Extase Spectres also had a bit of a vocal issue in the mix but their powerful, overdriven music more than made up for anything they were failing to convey by singing. A real tour de force.

Unlike Daggers who proved to be yet another loud but unengaging hardcore act. There's something a bit awry when such bands resemble hipsters until they take to the stage. Hard to take them seriously when that's the case. The UK was getting a lot of look ins tonight as next on the list were London's Yak, who as well as playing some very heavy & well paced indie had one of the better designed t-shirt images of the week so far. A trio who should hopefully be progressing steadily in the future.

Free jazz is a term bandied about a lot at Incubate & Dead Neanderthals are proponents of this inextricably linked to the event. What they mainly did at Midi was quality test the lifespan of a set of guitar strings when the insrument is battered, kicked, pounded and has all sorts of other physical abuse heaped upon it whilst a large sax is wailed away on and the drums thunder along. Fascinating like a car wreck and a good example of where jazz greys into hardcore but more theatre than music. Pretty self-indulgent too. Full Of Hell were perfoming sans Merzbow tonight so finally some absorbing hardcore was a possibility and they didn't fail to deliver this time around. As with the previous two acts at Hall Of Fame their singer took to the floor rather than confining himself to the stage, giving the early pit starters something else to avoid. "You guys sure like mayonnaise huh?" isn't maybe the greatest attempt at interaction with a crowd and at least one bloke seemed intent on being injured or causing the same when the pit got larger but the band were utterly convincing on all levels.

The bill at Dudok started quite late on tonight and first on it were the fun & laidback Jeff The Brotherhood. Top marks for actually having a good bit of chat with/for the audience and also obviously engaging with other elements of the festival. Their new album's out in October & from that they played 'Melting Place' as well as an unnamed track that, contrary to their more doomy paced songs, sounded not unlike some thing from an early Smashing Pumpkins album. They were so refreshing to watch in fact that I lost no time in going to catch the end of their set when Norway's Shining (not to be confused with Sweden's Shining) left me utterly cold at Midi. The least said about that experience the better.

Richie Dagger got to play at their own segment of the festival down in the Stadskelder and cranked out a nice line in Scandinavian-like garage rock, putting the seal on a really well curated few days that could easily have had a 3rd more bands of the consistent quality they'd programmed in. Rounding off the night was Sterling Roswell and his drone-heavy material over at Paradox. The accumulated experience of the man & his band was highly evident in their drawn out playing and ability to keep repeated phrases sounding as fresh as when first embarked upon. New song 'Ballad Of A Civil Servant', featuring such subject matter as David Cameron's brain being kept alive in a jar by US scientists, provided a light-hearted note of protest at the day's end.

One of the biggest concerns about releasing a bunch of songs which weren’t actually conceived of as a unified LP is whether or not the thing will hang together cohesively. Numbers 1-13, collating the three EPs released over the first years of Three Trapped Tigers’ existence, documents the band’s journey as they honed their skills and developed their deserved reputation as being one of the country’s most exciting post-rock outfits. Of course, the fact that these early tracks are numbered chronologically from one to thirteen gives the record a surface level gloss of continuity from the outset, but thankfully the record’s coherence is far more substantiated than that - showcasing a band coming into recorded existence startlingly well formed, and finding thrilling ways of organically maturing and improving over the course of three high quality EPs.

But to pretend that there isn’t an unevenness to the overall tracklisting would be foolish. Earliest track ‘1’, for example, as arresting and invigorating as its searing guitar riff undoubtedly is, becomes evidence (especially in light of later tracks) of a band who haven’t quite realised their full potential in terms of arrangement, nor entirely worked out how to record themselves - the bombastic guitar riffs shifting to the lighter keyboard passages somewhat perfunctorily; the soft key tones sounding bottomless in comparison to the fierce guitars, rather than complimenting them. Elsewhere, the mellower ‘4’, with its extended build up of ambient guitar noise and luscious keyboard arpeggios, is equally excellently rendered and executed, but somehow self-conscious, as if wanting to prove that they’re not a one trick pony.

The material comprising the second EP takes a leap forward in ambition, diversifying their palette with ramped up vocal textures on cuts like ‘6’, wider electronic experimentation with sub-bass noise, as well as - with the absolutely bewildering, what-the-fuck-just-happened-to-me ‘8’ - an apparent desire to test the boundaries of their own capabilities and discipline. Early track ‘2’ had a mid-section with enough complex rhythmic breaks to make me glad I was never invited to try and jam at one of their initial band practices, but this material takes it to astounding new levels - integrating the punishing riffs and electronics into impossible sounding rhythms.

Nothing on Numbers 1-13 can be said to be of anything approaching poor quality, but it’s definitely its back end - the material which made up the third EP - which finds Three Trapped Tigers settling into a confident maturity, exercising full command over their music. By conflating the polarities of sound in their earlier pieces - the bombast of ‘1’, the ambiance of ‘4’, the rhythmic focus of ‘8’ - Three Trapped Tigers arrive at their unique interpretation of contemporary post rock; the genre-leading sound which served as a launch pad for last year’s fantastic debut LP proper.

It’s perhaps unsurprising, and definitely encouraging, to find that the most jarring juxtaposition on a collection of songs spanning two years of recordings is to listen to ‘1’ immediately after ‘13’ - the former being a band sounding desperate to be heard, the latter being a band who know you want to listen. And not only is this a fantastic trajectory for a trilogy of EPs to have taken, it’s a trajectory which works just as well for an LP: opening with attention grabbing immediacy, expanding its scope and testing its boundaries throughout the mid-section, and settling into an self-assured maturity at its climax. Numbers 1-13, then, succeeds not only as an interesting history of a band rising to the height of their powers, but also as a solidly formed record in its own right.