AFTER two hours of non-stop music, Ulrich Schnauss' set ends with an ominous sounding pop.

His mixing desk, he explains in heavily accented English, appears to have died, prompting profuse apologies from the German producer that, sadly, there will be no encore, despite the demands of the crowd.

It must have been a frustrating end to a performance for someone who is so clearly a near-obsessive perfectionist and sound production geek.

He had started with some stern instructions to his sound engineer to adjust the volume on two of his channels, then gave further, inaudible, orders via a mic throughout the performance, accompanied by what appears to be his trademark wild-eyed stare, flung over the audience's heads to the sound booth at the back.

Other than these brief interruptions, Schnauss did not break his intense concentration and focus on the performance.

He stood side-on to the audience, facing his stereotypically Germanic female video jockey, who looked almost equally engrossed in her laptop as she swayed about rhythmically and flicked her industrially-shorn blonde locks.

It was not clear what either of them were doing, but the end result was fantastic; a flawless production of an all-encompassing wall of sound that is difficult to pigeon-hole, although complex and multi-layered ambient techno would be a fair approximation.

Despite some leanings in his earlier work, there was no hint of guitar, just sweeping and pulsing synth-pads washing over stuttered beats, noise and hypnotic arpeggios.

Ranging from the serene to the cacophonous, the sounds morphed as Schnauss twisted knobs and moved faders, with only the occasional jaunt on a keyboard.

Some of his tracks could be described as danceable, but for the most part it was music to stand and appreciate, with only a hardcore of about three, among a crowd of no more than 200, deciding to shake a leg.

With support from the fantastic Indigo, one of the leading lights of an emerging Manchester electronic music production scene, this was £11 well spent - even without the encore.