Souls of Mischief @ Electric Circus, 13 March

Immortalised as four of the faces to grace A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders sleeve when they recorded one of the great paeans to easy living that defined the era (93 ‘til Infinity), Souls of Mischief retreated to the fringes and formed prolific independent collective Hieroglyphics while contemporaries from that same artwork (Dr Dre and Sean Combs, for two) tipped the genre into commercial dominance.

Tonight a trio, as men in their mid-thirties (touring without fellow founder Adam ‘A-Plus’ Carter), the Oakland posse exude the benefits of staying true to the essence (“it’s a lifestyle,” says Damani ‘Phesto’ Thompson); throwing down a dextrous set of funk flavoured hip-hop that truly brings the Electric Circus to life. Tajai in particular ignites the room when he takes centre stage; with a bombastic flow in his latter day, he recalls Meth and Busta at their hungriest.

Distinctly old school without reclining into call-and-response clichés to see them through, playful staples like Limitations and That’s When Ya Lost comfortably rub shoulders with the grittier verses of 2010’s Prince Paul-produced Montezuma’s Revenge. Indisputably, it's that familiar, perfectly rounded anthem that raises the biggest cheer of the night, emerging like an old stoned friend who never moved out of his parents' basement. Getting reacquainted was easy.