Cuong Vu leads a trio that must surely be the envy of the New York experimental scene. The Hub and Chris Speed may like to think they make a terrifying racket but, frankly, Vu and his two friends make them sound like the soundtrack to a teddy bear's picnic.

The line-up is Vu on trumpet, Stomu Takeishi on bass and Ted Poor on drums, along with an arsenal of delay and echo-effect units that allow them to layer themselves into infinity. In Leeds they played two sets of noisy music and musical noise, drawing not only on the sonic legacies of free jazz but also on vintage prog, kraut-rock, avant garde punk and the overwhelming atmospherics of such contemporary post-rockers as Sigur Ros. There was also more than a hint of Black Sabbath in Takeishi's brawny bass playing, while Poor's machine-precise drumming evoked the spirit of electronica boffins Boards of Canada. If it sounds a bewildering mix on paper, it was a flabbergasting maelstrom in reality, albeit with some extended passages of introspective noodling.

The opening number Foetus Lullaby began with Vu's trumpet calls swirling around Takeishi's gloopy bass chords. Accelerating into a kind of futuristic space-funk, the trio sounded as if they were pounding at the doors of physical reality. The rhythm section chopped and churned, the trumpet grew more and more hysterical and the electronic effects conjured the disembodied sounds of chiming pianos and snarling guitar chords.

The band's raw material was occasionally less than riveting (few memorable themes, a couple too many swampy meltdowns and protracted overtures), but their instinct for drama carried them through.

This kind of music is quite easy to play badly, but a combination of fearsome technique and a predilection for abstract noise allows Cuong Vu's trio to frolic on a knife edge that few others would dare even to teeter upon. Scarily impressive.