Do you recall Sigue-Sigue Sputnik, a disco-beat combo of the late-1980s? While the torn fishnets and mile-high boots may be a thing of the past, the warped electronic sound is alive and well and being reproduced in fine form by an Amsterdam duo, Bjrn Ottenheim and Daan Schinkel, masquerading as zZz, a fascinatingly theatrical collaboration that is no less than the ‘Little and Large’ of the grunge-garage-rock scene.

According to their blurb, one should pronounce the band name in the same way that the French pronounce ‘Jazz’ but, without the ‘J’ and the ‘A’. Oh well, you pays your money… However, before disappearing to hear something alternative, there is an immensely potent vibe coursing through ‘Running With The Beast’, which I guarantee will have your feet tapping and your ears flapping, with its overly-miked, acidic drums and the briefly familiar, doom-laden vocals. This is about as dirty and enthralling as it gets.

Ottenheim is the giant driving force behind the skins, sweating profusely and raging against the machine like we have not witnessed for a long time. Schinkel’s keyboard antics borrow from several quarters and there is a distinctive Arcade Fire entrancement emanating from within its yowling, spiralling madness, as his over-indulgent hyperactivity squirrels from one cross-hands organ extravaganza to the next, with scarcely enough time to draw breath. Yes, it’s grungey. Yes, it’s rocky. Yes, it’s a broadly familiar sound. But it possesses a vibrant and engagingly spacey uniqueness that must have affected record producers the world over and Excelsior was the first to show its hand back in the early 2000s.

Now the zZz sound accompanies such commercial niceties as the latest Fiat cars advertisement. Has the band sold out? No. I doubt it. But they know how to make money and who am I to stop that?

Iain Robertson