It's shame George Evelyn will never have the budget to take the 20-piece band - full horn and string sections, gospel choir - his music needs on the road.

But even with just him, an Iration Stepper and two female vocalists he was able to create a spellbinding show.

They forsook the stage and set up on the venue's floor, perhaps to fill up space as the gig was (unfathomably) not a sell-out, or possibly to conceal the lack of any great onstage spectacle. Whatever, the ploy worked and you had no option but to allow NoW's sound to envelop you.

After cutting two of British techno's finest moments, Aftermath and Dextrous, in the early Nineties, Evelyn quickly moved on to embrace reggae, hip-hop, soul, funk and soundtrack styles.

New album In A Space Outta Sound is more of the same, and nobody's complaining. Flip Ya Lid and The Sweetest quickly demonstrated why.

The sound was beefed up a little for the live arena and Evelyn certainly knows what his best tracks are.

Ease Jimi, Know My Name, Play On and Finer were all thankfully present.

Despite being introduced by the most excruciating platitude - "we believe in humanity, not minority" - Ethnic Majority's female coos and cascading horns remained as glorious as ever.

Evelyn is adept at many things but, above all, he possesses a peerless mastery of the slow-build. Impeccably constructed, head-nodding beats, heartstoppingly sweet melodies and warm, luminous textures subtly built into one wondrous crescendo after another. Nobody combines beauty with lowslung funk quite like him and, by the time the singalong Afrobeat closer, Deep Down, arrived, everyone was sweaty and smiling.

Progress is quite unnecessary when you've already perfected the form.