Hip hop is not best known for making superstars of white, University-educated software developers, but Gold Chains looks set to change all that. The self-styled punk rock MC formerly known as Topher Lafata is responsible for a string of EPs on labels like Kit Clayton’s Orthlorng Musork and is in town to promote 'Young Miss America', his long awaited album.

He walks on stage in a pork pie hat and a shaggy wig, and ducks behind a pair of Apple Powerbooks with his female co-vocalist. The two laptop lids are decorated with the letters ‘G’ and ‘C’ respectively – tastefully understated by the standards of conventional hip-hop, but then Gold Chains is anything but conventional. One click later he launches an assault of stuttering syncopated beats and analogue squelches that would be more at home with Squarepusher than Snoop Dogg. Like Gonzales, inspiration comes from two camps: hip-hop and experimental electronic music.

‘Rock The Parti’, an old EP track, is as good an introduction as any. It’s chronically self-assured, self-referential and largely about his sexual prowess and ability with a microphone ("WHO ROCKS THE PARTY? WE ROCK THE PARTY! EVERYBODY ROCKS AT THE GOLD CHAINS PARTY!"). The lyrics echo the stream of consciousness cut-ups of Shaun Ryder, with phrases rising above the wall-of-noise: “Get Stereolab on stage as my back up band” he raps, as if So Solid Crew were the odd ones for not rhyming about Gallic art-rock instead of chicks, ice and platinum whips.

Tonight, ‘Let’s Get It On’ sounds like Peaches doing Salt’n’Pepa, with dirty lyrics and dirtier bass, and Lafata standing at the front of the stage frantically motioning his hands up and down. He joins the crowd on the dancefloor, while his foil moves around the stage like a hyperkinetic Kate Bush.

The knee-jerk time-changes and schizoid idea jumps are exhilarating and exhausting, but despite a modest Monday night crowd, there is more verve in this evening’s performance than some bands manage in a whole career. He comes close to self-parody on occasion, but the rapturous response of the audience suggests that they will forgive that. There is no time for ‘I Come From San Francisco’, his outstanding debut single, but he triumphs over a small crowd and a broken microphone to prove himself right: Gold Chains is the hip-hop solution.