If anyone turned up to The Prince Albert expecting the classic Telescopes line-up to give a nostalgic run through the singles from their shoe-gazing heyday, they would have been left scratching their heads.

The band that emerged in the 1980s next to the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Loop and Spacemen 3, only to implode in the 1990s and reform in the noughties as an experimental electronic group, has morphed into another entirely different beast.

With original members such as Jo Doran and David Fitzgerald long gone, The Telescopes that appeared on the crowded Prince Albert stage was essentially frontman Stephen Lawrie backed by London noiseniks One Unique Signal.

As Lawrie’s new accomplices fired up their distortion pedals, the singer created an unsettling atmosphere from the outset as he crawled between the legs of unsuspecting audience members to make his way on to the stage, before hunching over his vintage analogue synthesiser.

What followed was 45 minutes of brutal noise and a barrage of feedback, as Lawrie occasionally prowled the stage like a slightly less narked Mark E Smith, before he returned to his main position, knelt on the floor and howled into his microphone.

The sheer force and volume of the sound created by the new look Telescopes was a physical experience, but there were moments when it yearned for a chorus or a distinguishable melody to cut through the wall of rubbery guitars.

This latest embodiment of The Telescopes needs more focus before it can reach the creative standards of previous incarnations.