Steve Pretty's Perfect Mixtape

Perfect Mixtape is a playful, interactive journey through musical genres and technologies. Steve Pretty is a versatile musician, and this performance ranges from the trumpet to the kazoo via battered C90 cassette tapes in order to sequence intriguing stories of near-death and frustrated romance.

Surrounded by clapped-out stereo systems and assorted components from dated computer systems, the story of a tape compiled for a wake becomes the centralising focus as Pretty layers his story with scuba diving tales, percussive loops, vocal echoes, obscure Norwegian jazz work-outs and digs at the Daily Mail. Along the way, there are some impressive insights into the links between melancholy and music and an interesting section on the performer's attempts to compose a secular hymn.

Pretty is a perceptive cultural commentator, and his use of Robbie Williams' Angels to simultaneously gel the crowd and pinpoint the nauseating nature of the Take That clown's creation is well executed. Some of the sharper material in the show is drowned in sound, however. If a balance can be struck between the sprawling musical experiments and the nimble storytelling, more fascinating shows are bound to emerge from this talented performer.