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.
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