Juice: Daniel Avery @ Sneaky Pete's, 30 April

A cosy, methodical BPM reigns tonight, from both the headliner’s set and the atmosphere of the room. Sneaky Pete’s is, of course, a small venue, but at the Thursday institution that is Juice, this space is intimate, rather than claustrophobic. And the fact that Daniel Avery – a known name by any stretch – has been here six times in the last five years, suggests he is drawn to the space’s intimacy. Praised debut Drone Logic is characterised by its sense of closeness, a sort of metallic, acid-dipped techno that creates resonant spaces, and all driven by a tempo rarely topping 120. Lounging by the bar while the Juice residents incubate the room, he calmly signs posters and chats with clubgoers, at ease in the throbbing half-dark.

Avery strides through to take the stage, his imposing stature exaggerated by the size of the room. One detached, looping female vocal cuts through the smokey silence, drawing us in. On the raised platform, his distinctive blond curls and denim jacket loom over his decks: we are reverant. Tunnelling, deteriorating industrial sounds hypnotise us, the muted aches hiding just below the surface; he teases morsels of All I Need, and what sounds like the skittish faux-piano of the Roman Flugel remix. It’s been a couple of months since New Energy (a collection of Drone Logic remixes) was released, and tonight shows he’s keen to blend, vary and experiment.

He rolls his sleeves up; shit’s going down. The irresistable copper-tinged scrape of These Nights Never End lurches through us, into our eyes and down our throats, and we raise our hands in supplication. It’s a sentiment we all echo; this is never enough. The loping, progressive advance of Avery’s set feels a near constant apogee, and to end at all would have always been too soon. [George Sully]