Hudson Mohawke @ O2 ABC, 12 December

That mute silhouette perched atop the gleaming mothership – flanked by a drummer and a keyboardist like royal hands – has come a very long way indeed since his days spinning as DJ Mayhem on student radio. But it’s important to remember those roots, for this is a special homecoming gig (complete with a throwback afterparty at The Art School): Hudson Mohawke’s returned to Glasgow.

And this isn’t some passive DJ set. HudMo’s recruited two deft instrumentalists to help animate his vision, who have toured this rig with him this year. This incarnation tonight – perhaps especially for the ABC – seems vast, with Mr. Birchard himself at a particularly regal elevation. From the nocturnal, urban buzz of Lantern’s titular opening, it’s clear he’s cranked up his second LP’s cinematics to an eye-watering degree, especially when he then immediately launches into System’s industrial bombast. Before we can catch our breath, he triggers a rib-cracking version of Gooo (from his Lunice trap collab TNGHT), complete with air-raid sirens and apocalyptically crimson lighting, and the crowd is already in pieces.

He sounds crystal clear tonight, plucking highlights from Lantern but also delving into Butter and the Chimes EP to an ecstatic reaction. But what really sets this live performance apart is the lighting: mesmerisingly choreographed, with colours, timing and movement giving each track reimagined personalities, it’s a rare thing to have the visual aspect as arresting as the sonic. Lil Djembe’s funhouse glockenspiel is paired with wonky, rainbow beams, while Portrait of Luci is backed by blinding white and pink flashes. At points, the lights spin and wobble in the darkness, and without any other frame of reference it’s like the venue’s quaking.

Though it may as well be, by the time he detonates the almighty Higher Ground (also from the TNGHT EP), with its stamping, imperial horns, chased by the equally brassy and obnoxious Thunder Bay, and the audience churns. This is above and beyond what the fans could have hoped for, and later HudMo bows, humbly, having not said a word all set, and leaves the stage. Arms are still raised in glee, or shock, long after the orchestral sparkle of Kettles has faded, hailing the returned royalty. [George Sully]