Despite a nasty midwinter Sunday night, the club was absolutely packed for these four free-form New Yorkers, proof that abstract guitarists have always been big here.

The late Derek Bailey was a particular Vortex favourite and David Torn is a similar player, one who investigates the guitar less as a musical instrument than as a device for producing ambient noise.

There's no law against this but whereas Bailey was at least a pioneer, the improvising of Torn's quartet sounded disappointingly formulaic and tired.

During the hour's music I heard, only one piece was completed and it had no discernible theme. The mood was arhythmic, grungy and metallic, a suitable soundtrack for those post-nuclear-holocaust movies in which crazed desperados roam the rubble of destroyed cities.

Drummer Tom Rainey tried valiantly to build a groove but Torn and altoist Tim Berne weren't interested. Berne ran through bleary whole-tone-scale exercises and circular-breathing licks while Torn, his custom-made guitar hooked up to various sustain and distortion boxes, turned every simple stringstroke into a swelling discord that settled over the bandstand like a mushroom cloud.

Craig Taborn was scarcely heard, a waste of a subtle and soulful keyboard player. Torn drowned him out with real-time samples he then repeated, a little louder each time. "At the bar you will be able to get CDs and some cotton wool," club boss Oliver Weindling had remarked while introducing the band. At the time we thought he was joking.

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