THIS was Owen Ashworth's second visit to York in a year. Last time around, he was struck down by a nasty cold bug. He said he was feeling better at Friday's Fibbers gig – but his lethargic, plodding music suggested otherwise.

Ashworth’s brother, Gordon, was on hand to do a solo support set under his ambient alias, Concern. Gordon’s music – if you can describe it as music – is built using similar components to those his older sibling utilises: lots of electronic boxes garnished with mysterious knobs.

There were some snippets of interesting sounds, fragments from which songs could have been constructed, but nothing came of them; there was no melody, rhythm or structure of any kind, just a persistent wash of frequencies. To call it a dirge is to do a disservice to a long and venerable tradition of funeral marches.

After half an hour of this aural terrorism, he left the stage to make way for the headliner. The big Chicago man played a set peppered with songs from his new Vs Children. The harsh primitive keys and beats were a little mellower here than elsewhere, but the tone was overbearingly sluggish and his plaintive monologues became monotonous.

The dedicated fans seemed impressed, but the Fibbers dance floor thinned out towards the end, with one doorman saying the music had left him feeling suicidal. Ashworth certainly seemed to have left his sparkle at home on this occasion.