Eric is French, but I don't hold that against him. Quite the opposite, he's one of the front line soldiers in the cultural wars. Eric runs No-Signal and has been responsible for some of the best nights this jaded, cynical old twat has experienced in London. Plus he lets me DJ once in a while.

The Wire - that's the music magazine, not the HBO TV series (more on that later) - are celebrating 25 years of writing words about music. And Eric, bless him, has decided to put on two gigs in conjunction with the magazine to celebrate. Both are in West London and will be held in the beautifully rendered Bush Hall. Last time I was there, I saw Fennesz giving it some welly.

Not Eric. Rafael Toral.

The first night (4th November) is called 'Tones of Finland' and features three bands I've never heard of. But the last time I went to Finnish themed music night, I was totally captivated (that was the memorable Fonal Records showcase at the St Giles in the Fields Church back in March 2006). The second night (17th November) is the one I'm really interested in. It's got an impressive line up of artists that I've yet to hear live. But for me, the highlight will be Rafael Toral's interpretation of his 'Space' album.

Dropped last year on Staubgold, this was a pretty impressive piece of work. Just to give you an idea of how amazing this album was, check out the kit list....modified MS2 pocket amplifier feedback with light-controller filter, amplified coil spring percussion, gloves and theremin-controlled computer sinewaves, theremin-controlled white noise generator, delayed feedback empty circuit with joystick-controlled filter modulation, joystick-controlled sawtooth pulse bass resonance, pure and filtered sawtooth oscillator pulses, random pulse width modulation oscillator.

Needless to say, it'll be ace.

Go to http://www.no-signal.net/wire25 for tickets.

Rafael's Space manual.