Hailed by many as Blighty's answer to Beck - why, their names even rhyme - 23-year-old Tom Vek has come a long way since he started messing about with music in his parents' garage.

With not a computer in sight but heaps of determination, his dirty, electronica-fuzzed sound was born from dusty old equipment.

As he says: "Trying to record electro with punk equipment made punk electro."

"We made the garage into my music room when I was about 14. We got a knackered old drum kit, an eight-track reel machine and used old secondhand tapes with recordings from school choirs on them.

"It was good in a way. It forces you to innovate when your equipment's really limited. It was a necessity, but I'm really happy to embrace the rough edges, the happy accidents.

"When a lead crackles or you hit a wrong note, it's really cool."

A former St Martin's graphic design student, Tom's a talented multi-intrumentalist and incisive lyricist whose songs buzz with raw energy and booty-shaking basslines.

His catchy choruses are sung with a cheeky, laid-back flair in a deadpan voice, as electronica, punk and rock are fused with compelling originality.

Tom started out by sending some of his sonic reations to his dad's pal, a guitarist in Katrina And The Waves for a bit of feedback, who in turn passed them on to his cousin Tim Lee, owner of small indie label Tummy Touch.

Soon he found himself lauded in The Guardian as one of the faces to look out for in 2005 ("Intelligent, challenging and surprisingly funky, Vek's inventive and alarmingly accomplished music sounds like the future"). And when his tunes were played on Zane Lowe's Radio One Session, they sparked a record label bidding war, won in the end by Island Records.

"It's brilliant that there's been so much interest from labels in what I do, but it's quite weird as well," Tom says.

"I always thought I made quite leftfield music. Why do I think they like it? I guess they think I don't sound like anybody else.

"I had always made music just for the enjoyment of making it. I'd never been one of those musicians annoyed at having done it for ages with noone picking up on it. That wasn't where my mind was at.

"I'd always thought if some record label came in with a contract that would be great, but I'm talking daydreams there."

Tom's debut album We Have Sound was released in April. "I'm incredibly proud of everything on there," he says.

"There are no weak songs on it. Albums should be full of things the artist is happy with and I'm completely happy with this."

Live, his solo vision is filled out and funked up - for the better - with the help of a full band.

Starts at 8.30pm. Tickets cost £15, call 01273 647100.