Thunk, thunk, thunk "Are you the polis?" It was a reasonable question, in the circumstances. The young man had clearly spotted the scowling, note-scribbling, Victor Meldrew-like character, standing alone among the glowstick-encrusted throng. Adopting me for the night, he explained that this was "new rave" and that the readership of this newspaper may find it a little puzzling. "See", he explained, "this is our music. CSS are brilliant, but The Klaxons are a crap live band, man!" Thunk, thunk, thunk This was, indeed, new rave. The difference seems to be that this latest version involves human beings, and the NME has put four of the genre's finest exponents - New Young Pony Club, The Sunshine Underground, CSS and The Klaxons - on the road. Thunk, thunk thunk It's the sound of blacked-out hatchbacks with bass bins in the boot, and on Tuesday night it started with New Young Pony Club and didn't stop until The Klaxons finished their criminally short set (50 minutes including an encore).

In between, The Sunshine Underground played a blinder and were, rightly, accorded one of the best receptions of the night. CSS, from Brazil, pulverised us with sheer volume; their frontwoman, Lovefoxx, sported a natty Ozzy-like fringed top and behaved disconcertingly like the Sabbath man all night.

The Klaxons rattled through their album, Myths of the Near Future, from which the singles Golden Skans and Gravity's Rainbow stood out. Although Jamie Reynolds slurred his way through the set and may have been a trifle over-refreshed, the kids loved every minute. I hated it all, of course, which was exactly how it should have been.