Live Review: Calyx & Teebee, Pascoe, Tweak & Munkybar

The first act on tonight's bill to play to a decent crowd, New Zealand expatriates Tweak & MunkyBar deliver a set that's a serviceable warm-up for tonight's proceedings but nevertheless punctuated with flaws. While commendably eclectic (running the gamut from New Zealand-flavoured liquid through to aggressive techstep), their performance is marred by a number of awkward transitions and mixes. Their punishing mix, meanwhile – upping the sub bass frequencies to the point of genuine distortion – means their set is too often just a mess of noise.

Fellow New Zealander Pascoe handles himself better. Pulling back on the sub bass and subtly upping the tempo to manic 180BPM territory, he establishes himself as a true technician from the outset. More focussed than his predecessors, he largely limits himself to heavier and darker flavours of techstep and tearout – a late-set airing of Black Sun Empire's Extraction proving particularly representative of his set. Unfortunately, he doesn't really grasp long-form dynamics at this point. His set is a series of killer moments that doesn't quite flow over an hour. He relies too heavily on killing the sound entirely to build momentum between tunes. Too often, such a technique results in the opposite.

Nevertheless, anticipation has reached fever pitch when headliners Calyx & Teebee finally hit the stage. It's difficult to describe the crowd response when the pair initially unleash their set. A sprawling, kinetic mechanism of unmatched technique and exquisite precision, the duo's set tears through tracks like wildfire. New cuts like We Fall Away and Pure Gold are aired briefly, dismissed and then welcomed back into the fray like returning war heroes. The pair's mix is a thing of beauty – somehow breathtakingly clear and punishingly violent. Delivered across six turntables, it's so precise as to unnerve.

If anything, that is Calyx & Teebee's albatross. Much as do on record, they occasionally take their freakish dedication to complexity and precision beyond the point of practicality. Their set sprints through tunes so impatiently they rarely leave a moment to breathe. As such, their two-hour set eventually grows genuinely exhausting. That said, it's hard to fault an act for being too perfect.