SOMETIMES it’s easy to forget just how good a band Mogwai are. Tastemakers might grumble that the Glaswegians’ free-form, quiet-loud dynamic belongs to the last century, but live their music sounds timeless and transcendent.

What is beautiful about Mogwai is the mix of magic and mayhem within a single song, that sense of opposing and contradictory forces belonging together, each throwing the other into sharp relief. But it’s not as though they are a one-trick pony: their fifth studio album Mr Beast (due out in March) is a thrillingly ambitious record that adds to the mix everything from Neo-Classical piano to computerised electronica — from Mozart to the Mac.

In this context, perhaps it’s not that surprising that the band were asked to play a week of shows at the ICA in London this week, where they will be supported by a different band of their choice each night. There are also gigs scheduled in Moscow and Tokyo, but this show in Temple Bar Music Centre was their first of 2006.

Opening with their forthcoming single Friend of the Night, the band were mostly a six-piece for this set, with Stuart Braithwaite and Dominic Aitchison’s telepathic guitar duel shadowed by two keyboards, bass and drums. On Auto Rock, which pounded and pummelled its way to a knockout finish, the sextet were joined by a seventh member to help hammer away at the cymbals, like a school kid let loose in the music room.

Inevitably, the computer broke down, leading to some frantic activity on stage and on-the-hoof adjustments to the set list. Not that the audience was complaining: there was plenty of older material served up, with crowd-pleasers such as Stanley Kubrick and, from their debut album, Tracy and Summer dusted down with feeling.

After ending the set with We’re No Here (sic) the band returned for Folk Death 95 from the new album and an astonishing version of the epic Mogwai Fear Satan.

On this form, Mogwai should fear no one.

Mogwai play the ICA, London, (020-7930 3647) from tonight until January 14