It's dance music, but it's live! With a singer and everything! Yup, it takes a while for the midweek ravers here tonight to realise that Parisian funkateers Kojak are actually on at the opposite end of the room to the DJ, let alone enjoying themselves more than is legally allowed in a place of unspeakable urban cool.
But it's testament to the trio's well-honed live set of rubber-rimmed bass and frisky filtered house that within five minutes the ladies are on the podiums and the dancefloor's collective arms are aloft. For it's onstage that this threesome make most sense.
Though last October's 'Crime In The City' album for French imprint Prozak heralded the arrival of yet another Paris-dwelling troupe with a comprehensive understanding of the technique (though not necessarily the soul) of house, the sheer freedom of the live show allows crew cut DJs Vas and Greg - and their extraordinarily talented singer and wannabe air guitarist - Jayhem, to experiment and, er, feed off the crowd's enthusiasm.
With more build-ups than a Hitchcock thriller, the Kojak method may not be clever, but it's effective. The smooth-edged nu-disco shapes rinsed from Vas' needle-trashing antics and Jayhem's restless, primal croon lend Kojak a surprisingly welcome sense of the absurd. Which, given their peers' glassy-eyed zeal, makes Kojak unique.
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