Plastikman @ Barrowland, 3 December

There is, inevitably, plenty of hype preceding Plastikman’s appearance at the Barrowlands tonight: one of only three UK dates, it represents a rare opportunity to witness the 1.5 live incarnation of Richie Hawtin’s alter ego. Following a warmup set of characteristically intricate, rolling minimal techno from Magda, the Plastikman show begins exactly on time, typifying the attention to detail which permeates every aspect of it.

The central innovation of the Plastikman live experience lies in its total domination by a cylindrical LED cage covering the entire Barrowlands stage, across which a diverse range of mind-bending visuals, synced flawlessly to the music, appears. Hawtin, while intermittently visible inside the cage, thus reduces the emphasis on the artist as performer, instead creating an abstract visual centrepiece that demands – and rewards – attention as insistently as his fractured, skeletal compositions.

This approach perhaps takes techno-as-spectacle as far as any artist has; although, in doing so, it also affirms the logic of the stage-oriented, gig-style performance, one that has never quite seemed congruous with dance music. In terms of sheer sensual engagement, however, and for its seamless marriage of the audio and visual, Plastikman’s show is less a gig than an event; and in that respect, it lives up to the hype.