The $h*t - 'Lock Up Your Ghettoblasters!!!' (Sh*t Music) Released 24/07/06

You know you are in for a treat when iTunes comes up with ‘Unclassified’ as the genre for the music you are listening to. And that’s just it The $hit are original sounding through their careless mash up of different styles. In this age of overproduction The $hit should be appreciated for their originality seeing as everything has become so formulaic, along comes a band that pisses on your preconceptions.

The $hit take in and spit out pop, metal, electro, synth pop, rave and rap. Could they be a Sigue Sigue Sputnik for a new century? Well they certainly come from Birmingham which is a good start. They also have a keytar player called Queen Phuz – the skilled, bass player – That Bloody Cat and a lead man dabbling in electronics & vocals, Brian International. The album opens with a manic sounding click track accompanied by electronic key ring tack that soon dissolves into The $hit’s trademark rock keytar chaos on ‘We Don’t Give A **** About Soul’. With ‘Smash ‘N’ Grab’and ‘Kick Yourself’ lined up next, it becomes clear that The $hit are the latest sound of 00's wasted youth.

This is what happens when unemployment misery is turned into a driving force to behold. On ‘The New Black’ Brian blurts out the offensive yet trashy line ‘smoking crack, bombing Iraq’ with the instrumental part showing an uncanny similarity to The Shamen’s ‘Move Any Mountain’. Other songs like ‘H-M-V-R-I-O-T’ with its Haribo electronic bass line and ‘Oxygen Thief’ are both E number rushes of grime gone wrong. By the end of the album with song ‘Dead X 30’ The $hit are starting to sound like 80s computer game icon Jet Set Willy on speed. The $hit at their best are wildly entertaining and quirky enough to keep the listener gagging for it, with interesting electronic tricks and cheap thrills up their sleeves.

So grab your space hopper and battery-powered pump action water pistol, join in the fun and kick up some $hit.