Eyedea & Abilities: The name says it all

The next generation of anything will always catch you by surprise, and hip-hop is no exception. The latest jolt of energy comes from the duo Eyedea & Abilities, whose sold-out show Tuesday at the Knitting Factory used minimalist ingredients for maximum impact, with a maelstrom of noise and beats and Eyedea’s frantic freestyle raps on his endless bohemian catastrophe.

Wearing a white T-shirt with the word “Happy” on it, Eyedea was a playful, tortured, high-energy frontman, rapping with uncertainty and frustration on small crises made XX-tra large. He shouted: “What doesn’t kill me will make me crazier!” and “Feels like my brain is hanging on by a clothespin!”

He rapped about big shots and existential malaise, turning to love gone wrong on “Paradise,” later pausing for some quasi-romantic jazzy soul that suggested a broad musical range, even as he was occasionally ready to lean on a crowd-pleasing cliche (“Make some noise! L.A. is in the house!”).

Onstage, the Minneapolis-based duo were true collaborators, as Eyedea (real name: Michael Larsen) repeatedly praised and reintroduced DJ Abilities (Gregory “Max” Keltgen), a master turntablist who stacked beats, samples and scratches to sometimes intergalactic effect. Late in the hourlong set, Abilities even re-created the sound of a glam electric guitar solo with a series of stuttering, echoing effects.

The result was even sharper live than on the pair’s fine new album, “E&A;,” a sound that goes back to rap’s roots, free from bling, inventive and ready to soar to a different future -- music free to roam, not market driven.