Lydia Lunch @ Stereo, 7 July

Given the subtlety and playfulness of their music, Glasgow's Muscles of Joy are in some ways an incongruous opening act for Lydia Lunch; yet the art-rock seven-piece have a similarly open conception of what live music should do. These pieces embellish group vocals, drums and guitars, with keyboards, brass, melodica, and a bewildering range of percussion. Despite this agglomeration, each element is used so sparingly that plenty of space remains, with direction being generated through tempo changes and constant shifts in the sonic palette. The effect is strikingly original, undermining typical rock hierarchies and emphasising collectivity in the creative process.

Challenging the patriarchal aggression of the rock tradition, and western culture in general, is what New York's Lydia Lunch has been doing since the seventies. Tonight, she presents a series of readings, each personalising a sense of powerlessness and anger in the face of cultural hegemonies. The readings are backed by visual projections and music which together conjure a sense of Lynch-esque dreamlike uncertainty. Covering subjects ranging from western governments' Orwellian abuse of language, to the politically empowering potential of intoxication, Lunch's performance is intensely compelling throughout.

The relevance of these concerns has never felt greater, and she ties her themes in with contemporary events adroitly; particularly in placing phone-hacking within the wider context of UK surveillance culture. Such insidious threats and aggression are ultimately responded to with calls for hedonistic empowerment: to “seek pleasure at the mouth of the apocalypse”. In vastly different ways, then, both acts tonight affirm the subversive potential of music which challenges generic or cultural boundaries. [Sam Wiseman]