Here's what we know about MV & EE: those initials stand for Matt Valentine and Erika Elder, they're signed to Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label, they've been relatively prolific over the past few years and their most recent release was a double LP entitled Gettin' Gone.

Here's what we know about Madrid's Wurlitzer Ballroom: absolutely nothing, before tonight. Having frequented several of the bigger club venues in the city over the past few months, the 'Ballroom is territory hitherto uncharted. Once inside, we're greeted by a generously sized bar that snakes down along the left hand side of the venue. The stage, lurking at the far end, is somewhat smaller. But it's certainly cosy.

There's just enough time to order a cerveza before five musicians - two of whom we recognise as MV & EE - troupe onstage, say hello and pick up their instruments. What follows isn't so much a conventional set (you know, one song played after another), but more an exercise in tantric musical masturbation.

The first tune, for instance, we pick out as 'Easy Livin'' from the aforementioned Gettin' Gone. It's played relatively straight, with the interweaving acoustic/pedal steel lines steeped in an Eastern sounding mysticism. Ry Cooder, you feel, would approve. So, too, Zappa if he'd been raised a hick.

Then, as that song finishes, it begins. Five, no six, no ten plus minutes of the band flexing their muscles with what could easily be an improvised sludgy, acid-folk-blues workout. Though if you look at the length of some of the 'songs' on their albums, this is pretty much standard fare. 'Easy Livin'', in fact, is MV & EE at their most accessible. And it ain't all that accessible.

You've seen DiG!, right? Well, the footage of The Brian Jonestown Massacre jamming aimlessly as they head towards implosion is what the rest of the set sounds like to us. The tunes, as good as some of them are, just don't seem to go anywhere. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Vocals are few and far between. When they arrive, Valentine recalls early Jagger and Elder... well, she sounds genuinely in pain, as if she swallowed a packet of cigarettes seconds before stepping onstage. Lit cigarettes.

There's no doubting that Matt Valentine and Erika Elder are talented musicians. The only question - and it's a big one - is whether they'd make better music if they cut out the excess and tried to write in a more concise, focussed manner. And, even though he knows that's probably the antithesis of what they're striving for, this writer would have to answer that question with a resounding “yes”.