It could be argued that dance music by its nature appeals to our basic emotions, while hopefully triggering spasmodic mov-ement from the listener.

The self-titled genre of Intelligent Dance Music counters that argument by taking on a “thinking man’s” approach, demanding more from the listener. Unfortunately, because of this, people who just want to dance can be left alienated.

But not so for The Bays.

I doubt they would like to be branded as IDM, but they certainly managed to fuse together the primal aspects of club music with the lavish textures and experimentation of a full band. A live drum kit helped to give people the choice of mashing along to bass-laden grooves or standing back and admiring the dense sonic spread on offer.

The most important thing to remember is that every performance by The Bays is entirely improvised. On this night they worked with astonishing cohesion, building up to peaks and dropping at various points, almost as if they had been rehearsing religiously beforehand.

At this gig, their dark blend of drum & bass, house and funk clearly had some brains behind it, while the fact it was off-the-cuff made it all the more satisfying.