“It’s great to see that y’all motherfuckers can turn a sad song into a party song,” says Slug.

The cocky Minneapolis rapper, one half of Atmosphere along with producer Ant, should be grateful: the duo have a ten-year-plus career of making deeply personal, difficult hip-hop music, and if there is one city that can turn it into shit to get down to, it’d be London.

The Atmosphere at the Scala tonight is a little different to the Atmosphere that toured last year. Their set this time was comprised mainly of songs from God Loves Ugly and When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold (hereafter referred to as plain Lemons) and it was nice to see them not only returning to the old favourites but trying out new ones. ‘Saves The Day’, always a crowd pleaser, struck a nice balance with the epic, rarely performed ‘Trying to Find a Balance’.

Most of the really great Lemons tracks were there too, including ‘Puppets’ and the Nate Collis-backed ‘Guarantees’. But at nearly two hours, there were unquestionably some dull moments. Despite Slug’s engaging stage presence and the addition of a band and extra vocalists, Atmosphere thrive when their sets are clipped a little and not let loose to rampage around the venue for hours like some deranged, depressed monster. And, since we’re nitpicking, why on earth do they never perform ‘Dreamer’ – easily the best and funkiest track off Lemons?

We won’t nitpick too much, though. This was still a night to get loose at.

Rob Boffard