YOU may know them for their surreal cover of Pink Floyd's angst-rock classic Comfortably Numb - which answered the question of what it would have sounded like had it actually been written by the Bee Gees in a nightclub full of transvestites.

Floyd's famously humourless Roger Waters is probably even now sending the boys round to sort out the cheeky beggars. However, there's a whole lot more to New York's Scissor Sisters than one novelty hit.

What we have here is an utterly over-the-top camp-as-Butlins showband, obsessed with Seventies and early Eighties funk, pop, disco and glam rock - all booty-shaking basslines and falsetto squeals. The surprise is they are really good at it, rather than coming across as "ironic" show-offs.

The musical references of the songs are cheerfully blatant - Prince (Laura), Stevie Wonder (Better Luck), David Bowie (Return To Oz) and even Elton John at his Seventies pop peak (Mary and Music Is The Victim). However, their finest moments, such as the dirty disco piledrivers of Filthy/Gorgeous and Tits On The Radio or the futuristic, psychedelic balladry of It Can't Come Quickly Enough, see them climb above pastiche, into a glittery, sleazy identity of their own that could almost give white-boy funk a good name.

Fans of Outkast's recent smash, Hey Ya, will find a kindred spirit here, although the Sisters' approach also brings to mind disco-rock pranksters Electric Six, who last year - just like this record - brought a big smile to the miserable tail-end of winter.

Whether this is the start of a glorious career for Scissor Sisters or just a briefly entertaining one-off is another matter. But, right now, you won't find a better antidote to a soggy, miserable February than this.

Scissor Sisters play Leeds Cockpit, February 15, and Sheffield Leadmill, February 17.

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Updated: 09:24 Thursday, February 05, 2004