Princess Nokia @ Leith Theatre (EIF), Edinburgh, 17 Aug

Michael Stipe talks about how, when combatting his stage fright, he would stand perfectly still until he felt the music overtake him, and from there he could trust his instincts. Coucou Chloe seems to have developed her own version of this, in which she pads back and forth across the stage like someone debating another Hobnob after they’ve put the packet away, waiting for the music to seize her.

It’s oddly captivating; these high energy, future-facing tunes with the performer idly pacing, cap over her eyes, only occasionally using the mic. The set perversely becomes less interesting the more she throws herself into it, the tunes becoming more uniform, and her stage persona becomes less idiosyncratic, more like everyone else making these sort of songs. In these latter stages only the swinging, scrunched bass of Wizz, and her remix of Lady Gaga’s Stupid Love really stand apart, her deadpan delivery amongst Gaga’s emphatic singing style an interestingly wonky collision. 

Princess Nokia, by contrast, arrives to The Prodigy’s Firestarter, in front of a backdrop of neon tower blocks and throws their whole body into bashing out as many bangers as possible. They’re on good form; the stumbling, glitchy Sugar Honey Iced Tea (S.H.I.T.) being particularly lively, their voice managing to stay punchy but nimble amidst the swells of choral vocal samples. However once this opening salvo is through the show sets into a pattern of being as much chat as tunes. This isn’t a problem in itself, but as the chat begins to go on longer than the songs it really begins to drag. This combined with the frequent bursts of a cappella singing – which starts out fine but increasingly grates – work to leave the gig’s momentum stuttering, falling away just as quickly as it has appeared.

Image: Princess Nokia @ Leith Theatre for Edinburgh International Festival, 17 Aug by Andrew Perry

It’s particularly frustrating because when the tunes arrive they’re superb, and the volley of songs from 1992 are particularly strong. Bass hoiked up, the grime influence of tunes like Tomboy and Kitana really pushes through and they become absolutely pummelling. They find another level to their recorded versions infinitely more pronounced and sure of themselves, to the extent that listening to the originals now they sound reedy and anaemic. The triplet of more recent singles are superb, and point in an exciting direction, in which Nokia marries the poppier instincts of recent albums with a bruising forcefulness. It’s particularly felt on No Effort, their flow slaloming Dre-like plucks, while they whirl about the stage, a sparky, electrifying presence.

It’s a shame there’s so much of what feels like dead space in the set, because when it hits it really hits, and shows a magnetic performer with some properly great songs. 

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Edinburgh International Festival runs at various venues untl 28 Aug; book tickets at eif.co.uk