Slowthai @ O2 Ritz, Manchester, 28 Mar

Slowthai is building himself something of a reputation as a man who knows how to make an entrance. Setting aside the fact that he's spent the last year announcing himself to the British public with a near constant stream of singles, he has of late taken to being brought on stage in a coffin. He eschews such theatricality tonight though, ambling on to the sinister murk of Polaroid. Once the first chorus kicks in he’s twitching through the song embodying its viciously manic intensity without any sense of pantomime. Drug Dealer and Peace of Mind are similarly strong, the former’s strings piercing while the latter’s sputtering Streets-inflected drum pattern becomes remarkably forceful in a live setting.

He spends most of the night in front of a second raised stage set-up, which looks somewhere between rows of upturned two-bar fires and Yeezus-era Kanye’s take on minimalism. It gives producer and hype man Kwes Darko a level of attention that feels particularly bold seeing as his beats are in danger of stealing the show. Where on record his beats tend towards understated subterranean menace, live they explode into battering surges of bass and clattering synth rhythms that bear closer resemblance to Oneohtrix Point Never’s refracted digital collapses than anything anyone could be expected to rap over.

There are periods though when the gig loses its momentum and ironically it’s the lively GTFOMF and IDGAF that do it. While on their respective EPs they raise the largely downcast energy, here – where people are crowd surfing to even the unrelenting bleak Slow Down – they're exposed as ultimately hollow, lacking any of the idiosyncrasies of his best work. On top of this, his rapping style loses something in a live setting. When recorded Slowthai is afforded the ability to savour every word, stretching them into new shapes. Here he's forced into bellowing every word until the language becomes flat slabs rather than the tactile three-dimensional objects he's capable of turning them into.

However, during North Nights, perhaps his strongest work so far, everything aligns. The beat is battering but understated, his delivery is calmer but far more subtle in its expression, his words at their sinewy, elastic best. As the momentum builds towards the song’s end he seems completely transported, snarling his way through the last lines like his life depends on it. It’s a reminder that he has the capacity to be one of the UK’s most idiosyncratic young stars.