Straddling the conventions of hip-hop/electronica, popular/underground, gay/straight, performer/producer, Tricky is not an easy artist to pin down. As can be expected, his live act is pretty bilateral, as well. His recordings are mostly the result of intricate electronic sequencing and sampling, yet he performs with a full band, and nary a turntable in sight. He is also a one-name headlining solo artist, yet he spent more than half of this intimate L.A. show with his back turned to the audience, contributing nothing to the songs being performed around him apart from some vague shadow-boxing to the beats. He seemed content to let the music speak for itself via the voices of a rotating series of guest vocalists, most notably the earthy chanteuse Ambersun- shower and the gravelly Jamaican rapper Hawkman. The effect was less a solid performance by a singular artist than a motley festival of different voices and musical styles.

Surprisingly, considering the concert took place almost a full month before the release of his new album Blowback, Tricky’s new material provided some of the evening’s highlights. The show kicked off with the sultry, bass-driven “You Don’t Wanna,” and would go on to include soul-shaking renditions of “Excess” and “Girls.” His previous “hits” were also accounted for (all both of them): the militant “Black Steel,” which benefited from the use of a real drum kit, and the haunting “Overcome,” which was hindered by the venue’s oversized, note-mincing speakers. (Just because you can turn it up to 11 doesn’t mean you should.)

As for Tricky the vocalist - well, he’s still the same murky gurgler that he is on record. The interesting thing is how faithful his live articulation is to his recorded one, which suggests that his off-tempo vocalizations are less the product of a laid-back mellifluence than of a single-minded perfectionism. On many songs, his hazy repetition of mumbled lyrics tended to drone on far past the point of enjoyment. Still, he managed to transform “Pumpkin” into a transcendent chariot of a duet with Ambersunshower, whose sweltering voice complemented him even better than Alison Goldfrapp’s exquisite work on Maxinquaye. And he ended the show on a high note by bringing out surprise guest Ed Kowalczyk for a loose, festive encore of “Evolution Revolution Love,” a song that’s Tricky’s strongest bid yet to fly Somewhere Over the Radar. It was a reminder that even electronic music wizards shouldn’t be afraid to pull away the curtain of perfectionism every once in a while, and allow the wayward freedom of a live performance to transform their work.