Three Trapped Tigers @ Captain's Rest, 21 September

Live Review by Chris Buckle | 26 Sep 2011

There’s a reason Three Trapped Tigers’ ‘IDM played live’ sound is a rarity: it looks bloody difficult. All three members possess stonking skill reserves, but it’s drummer Adam Betts who commands attention, pounding with precision no matter how complicated the structures. His bravura beats underpin a constantly-inventive amalgamation that encompasses not only stated influences like Squarepusher, but Fucking Champs-style double-tapped guitar shreds, bruising metal-esque riffs, and some kind of knotty, genre-dodging jazz-dance fusion.

If you don’t already know these mini-symphonies inside out, then good luck guessing when to come in with applause; if you do, it’s striking how much more imposing they sound live than on record. The trio’s cool precision means that their set lacks the thrilling unpredictability of, say, Ponytail or Lightning Bolt (with whom the Londoners share a certain musical boisterousness), but the compensation package – an intense smorgasbord of textures and rhythms – is wholly satisfactory.

http://www.threetrappedtigers.com