Caught Live: Matmos @ The Button Factory, Dublin

Arriving a little late to a Matmos gig is a bit like gatecrashing a college lecture: by the time Ragged Words arrives this evening, Drew Daniel, M.C. Schmidt and co. have the full attention of the seated Button Factory audience, and the first number is already in full swing.

The opening piece features a participatory performance from a choir of volunteers – an accumulation of enthusiastic Irish fans, basically – who are eagerly chanting along with the sound sculpture that's being crafted onstage by the experimental duo. The juxtaposition of primitive chants and sci-fi sounds suggests some weird coupling of occultism and science – not necessarily the sort of thing we usually go in for on a Monday night! Not for the last time tonight, the influence of Schmidt's past involvement with The San Fransisco Art Institute is apparent; however, an atmosphere that might otherwise border on sterile is dissipated when he looks up at the end of the exercise and cracks an infectiously bold smile.

As the set progresses it quickly becomes clear that, while these guys certainly reside on the more avant-garde fringes of electronic music, what they really specialise in is playing with music, as opposed to merely playing it. A bewildering spirit of discovery and improvisation combined with such a high level of both musical and technological mastery onstage is a rare enough occurrence nowadays, and if the enthusiastic reception each track receives this evening is anything to go by, it's also a very welcome one.

Matmos are most famed for generating music from unusual sources, and their final track tonight is an excellent example of this: joined onstage by support act and fellow sonic explorer John Wiese, Schmidt demonstrates his prowess at abstracting every conceivable sound from just a couple of prayer bowls, three bottles of water and an empty beer can. This is all conducted in hazardously close proximity to the (decidedly non-water-resistant) electronics Daniel is using to build a tapestry of noise by looping and affecting these found sounds. This experimental finale inevitably culminates in high volumes of water being consumed and the beer can being torn to shreds at the mic. We can't have been the only ones left scratching our heads somewhat as we headed for the door.

(Photo courtesy of John Kealy. Read Fiona Diffley's in-depth interview with Matmos's Drew Daniel here.)