Electricity in Our Homes will never see their name appear in neon lights above Wembley Stadium and appear entirely content with that state of affairs. This chaotic London four-piece with one vinyl EP to their name are 1980s revivalists, but rather than take the Franz Ferdinand/Killers/Bloc Party route of updating Talking Heads and Gang of Four to secure chart success, they channel a much less commercial strain of John Peel-patronised art-rock once practised by long-forgotten, marginal, mid-1980s bands with names like Kilgore Trout.
Sauntering on stage at midnight at Erol Alkan's painfully hip club Durrr at The End, Electricity in Our Homes cut quite a dash. Cherubic singer Thomas Childish alternates barking part-sequiturs into the mic with staring vacantly into space like a man killing time at a bus stop, while Charles Moderate (these may not be birth names) strums his guitar high on his chest like a ukulele. Female moptop bassist Bonnie K resembles a Gorillaz cartoon rocker, while drummer Paul Partial is so insouciant that he even appears to play flippant paradiddles.
Musically, they are all spindly art-funk and grotesque rhythmic spasms. The abrasive We Don't Need Honesty suggests Frank Zappa being mugged by recently deceased joke-rockers the Test Icicles, while More Minimal simply sounds as if they are tuning up. After Childish delivers the Beefheart-esque Are They Doing Something Nasty? with a knowing sneer worthy of Mark E Smith, Electricity in Our Homes reduce Louie Louie to a feral grunt and vanish after a mere 15 minutes. Peel would have been delighted.
· At Corsica Studios, London, on January 16. Box office: 020-7703 4760. Then touring.