A leaner, meaner Acoustic Ladyland delivered a pummeling at Cargo last night. Launching their new album, Living With a Tiger - their harshest outing yet - the quartet played a brutally entertaining set. New guitarist Chris Sharkey (a leaner Charles Bronson) and new bassist Ruth Goller (Tank Girl's sister) added greatly to the group's menace and Pete Wareham drew from his tenor sax an array of guttural, emotional expressions that verged on the midnight confessional. Seb Rochford's drums were extraordinary as ever - notably on Not So and the Mighty Q. I missed departed member Tom Cawley's keyboards - but Sharkey's inventive use of effects pedals added their own texture, and the guitar made sense in this punkier context. This was music to be inflicted rather than merely performed - and the crowd were gluttons for punishment.

Wareham launched his quartet some years ago as a Jimi Hendrix-inspired interpetive jazz act, and have gradually edged closer to Wareham's punk ideal over the years. With Last Chance Disco (2005), they earned an unprecedented amount of press for a jazz act, a Jools Holland appearance and a place on V2 records - who put out their last album, Skinny Grin, in 2007. But that collection did not capture the imagination of the record-buying public and, despite some magnificent moments, pulled in too many directions at once; V2 was sold to Universal and AL did not make the move.

The awkward flirtation with the rock mainstream clearly took its toll on Wareham: "This tune's about the music industry; it's called Promises Promises", he announced before leading his troupe through a sarky, snarly and rather blistering new number. But the older and wiser AL make more sense on their own terms. The new album - recorded, through financial necessity, in three days with no guest appearances or vocals and put out on their own label - is their most coherent yet, the one that best captures their live energy. Why don't more bands record in this way, it prompts the listener to wonder - mood and focus prioritised over gloss and sheen.

Speaking to Wareham after the show, I was left in no doubt that it's been a hard slog - his single-mindedness is admirable - and that he greatly appreciated the crowd's reaction. A place on the Mercury Prize shortlist would be fitting reward. And, hopefully, some lucrative action movie soundtrack contracts - this stuff would sound awesome over a few explosions.