If you like your rock groups dark, funk encrusted and energetic, then an excellent thing to check out this Friday is the CD release for Controller.Controller. They're gracing Spin Gallery - fast becoming a great place to catch original bands and alternative dj's - with their conspicuous presence. Expect chaos.

If you put all 4 members of Blondie in a bottle, shook it up really hard so they got seriously angry and disorientated, released them, sprayed Tabasco sauce in their eyes so their anger turned to a surging burning rage, then made them listen to Celine Dion for 8 hours at a time so they weren't even angry any more, they were just, really really bitter at how twisted, mean, ugly and cruel the world could be. If all that happened - and I'd like to think that it could somehow - and then you made any surviving members jam together, they'd probably end up sounding a bit like Controller.Controller. I'm reluctant to draw comparisons with Joy Division (ever) since they ought to stand alone and incomparable as one of the best groups that's lived. So instead of going there, I'll say that Controller.Controller put a dark, edgy spin on the punk pop funkiness of ESG that's experiencing a huge revival of late.

Check out some tracks of theirs here and a larger version of their wonderful flyer here.