The sound of a Theremin wafted around the Olympia on Wednesday night, signalling the second coming of Portishead, and calling attention to the hunched figure of singer Beth Gibbons, as she wrenched those wistful vocals from somewhere within. The trip-hop group from Bristol began as they meant to go on: morose, low-key and deeply soulful.

Songs from the second album, Portishead, set the tone, and the band delivered Cowboys, Mourning Air and Half Day Closing like bad news which must needs be imparted. The audience stood reverentially and listened to the organic mixture of beats, scratches, guitars, bass and keyboards, mesmerised by Gibbons's frozen concentration and lulled by the slow, stalking beats. Guitarist Adrian Utley was well to the fore, following Beth's lyrics with some phrasings of his own, while Geoff Barrow stayed at the back, mixing and scratching with startling precision. The band finished with a re-worked version of Sour Times, summing up the sweetness and bite which makes Portishead such a strange and compelling fruit.