With this year's album Whorl, Simian Mobile Disco slunk away from the polished electro-pop and transfixing house tunes of old and took a leap into left field.

Recorded live in the depths of the Californian desert with little of the hi-tech‎ gadgetry they are used to fiddling with - the duo restricted themselves to a mixer, synth and sequencer each - it was a triumph of textural experimentalism.

But playing the album in full as part of the Earsthetic audio visual events ‎there were only rare glimpses of its prowess.

While the flurries of ‎beats, analogue ditties and slow-building rhythms were hypnotic at times - and stylishly complemented by live generated digital content courtesy of long-time collaborators Jack Featherstone and Hans Lo - the set barely got out of second gear.

A pretty poor turnout meant there was more space in the ‎venue than in some of the duo's eerily sparse segments, while several technical glitches ground proceedings to a halt on three occasions.

A lack of any ‎audience interaction and what felt like a far too early start time for such a concept also contributed to creating a sanitised and staid aura.

Sadly, these factors transpired to take a daring and dashing record and dilute it into a disappointingly weak live spectacle.