The opening song, which will probably be the first single, is 'Intelligent Men', which sounds like Bob Dylan fronting The Specials. Pieter Bezuidenhout whines and wails his way through bassist Dylan Kelmo's lyrics with the boys in the band doing their sax-fuelled, stop-start lunacy behind him. 'Cheesy Two-Tone' is a straightforward punk-ska thrash with some seriously sharp thoughts popping out of the noise. The third track. 'Softshoes cinema helicopter', which may or may not be a tribute to some old SA bands, starts off sounding like Costello's 'Watching The Detectives', turns into the old rock chestnut 'Shaboom Shaboom' and then veers off into a hardcore rave with a jazz-guitar solo thrown in for some contrast. 'Free And Headless' and 'Prozac' cool the mood down a little as their titles would suggest, though no-one seems to have told sax-meister David Poole, who must have the hardest working lungs this side of the Swartberg.

These "stars in bars" boys are out to have some fun with their music, shake up some sacred cows along with some old-fashioned perceptions, and get their growing legion of fans dancing madly. That they succeed on this EP is beyond dispute. How the hell they're going to follow this is not as clear, but I can't wait to hear the next instalment.

Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman

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