If there was any likelihood you might forget you'd spent the evening at a gig by veteran Dutch noise-guitarists the Ex Guitars and free-jazz improvisers Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love, the humming in your ears for the rest of the night keeps you posted. Chicago saxophonist and clarinetist Vandermark and Norwegian drummer Nilssen-Love periodically explore this full-on collision with the fearless electric-guitar duo under the name Lean Left, and at volume levels that practically dismantle the furniture. The quartet played a two-night residency at Dalston's Cafe Oto, splitting the Monday performance between their regular set and a quintet one-off also featuring British free-funk drummer Steve Noble.

It might seem masochistic to the unconverted, but Vandermark is one of the most resourceful (and melodic, soulful and funky) saxophonists on the international jazz scene, and Nilssen-Love a contender for great-drummer status across several idioms. That breadth fills even such ostensibly wall-of-noise performances as this with exhilarating variety, and the Ex Guitars add their own rich mix of percussive playing, spine-tingling feedback and rock-strumming drive. A hell-driving first half seemed to maximise the potential energy output of the show, from the opening chordal roar and clatter of drumstick-hits on guitar strings, to Nilssen-Love's crunching funk beat, Vandermark's high-register riffing on tenor sax and even higher circular-breathing lines on clarinet.

But Steve Noble's arrival topped it. Noble supplied textural effects on his cymbals and hi-hat against Nilssen-Love's elemental rumble and the clanking of the guitars at the start, but the two were soon racing neck-and-neck through a tumultuous collective groove. For all its raw power, however, the second set also offered Ken Vandermark space for more contemplative melodic ideas. It was the kind of gutsily accomplished improv performance that brings together listeners from all kinds of contemporary music.