Thundercat @ The Poetry Club, Glasgow, 24 August

Marrying the far-flung explorations of cosmic jazz with contemporary innovation in electronica is an ambitious project, but that’s what Stephen Bruner – aka Thundercat – has achieved over his first two LPs on Brainfeeder. Both records were co-produced by Flying Lotus, which goes some way to explaining their idiosyncratic melding of Bruner’s virtuosic bass workouts with trippy, staccato drum loops and psychedelic keyboard washes.

Live, Bruner strips things back to a more orthodox setup, of bass, keys and drums, and as a consequence some of the contemporary sheen of this year’s Apocalypse LP is lost. Evidently acknowledging this, the opening DJ sets from Numbers’ Bobby Cleaver and Simply Richard focus on slamming 80s funk and hip-hop, setting the tone for an evening which emphasises the roots of black music’s contemporary strains.

In moving away from the LP’s dense, glossy textures, Thundercat is able to bring out the rich complexity of his compositions. Is It Love? opens with an uptempo passage of ostentatiously brilliant keyboard soloing, before slowing down and allowing Bruner’s astonishing fretwork to take centre stage; such moments comprise the pillars of a set that effortlessly merges his silky, soulful vocals with this blistering technical accomplishment.

Conversely, Thundercat’s less-structured pieces can sound incidental in this form, stripped of the metallic edge and sense of context with which they function on the LPs. Bruner is undoubtedly at his strongest when his virtuosity augments the emotive power and epic structures of his compositions, rather than taking over; fortunately, tonight’s set demonstrates his intuitive awareness of the point.