SOULWAX Rock City, Nottingham "We are Soulwax and we bring you the international language of Belgian rock". Oh dear. Where's that phase book? Such a manifesto is unlikely to lead to great things, unless your called dEUS. But Soulwax deserve much more credit than that. Clad in wonderfully silly suits that make them look like a bunch of misfit-mods, they provide an unholy and ill-fitting hybrid of old skool beats, buzzing keyboards and schizophrenic guitar riffs. Lead singer Stephen Dewaele clutches a particularly fetching florescent microphone stand that flashes vibrantly as 'Much Against Everyone's Advice' ignites the crowd. The now regular cover of Prince's 'Pop Life' begins with a heartfelt tribute to the rock 'n' roll holy grail that is the Casio guitar ("sing it: C-A-S-I-O") and eventually collapses into a wholly unnecessary but altogether enjoyable drum solo. The raucous finale of 'Too Many DJs' is scarily commanding - whilst Soulwax do seem to enjoy taking the piss out of themselves as often as possible, the image of them as some kind of novelty band is incorrect. The truth of the matter is that bad suits and toy guitars aside: they rock like bastards. Belgium would be proud. Hardeep Phull. Thanks to Steph for sending this to the mailing list