Pickled Eggs & Sherbet

After the three DJs/producers behind Sheffield’s The All Seeing I (including clubscene stalwart and Cabaret Voltaire collaborator DJ Parrot) scored an accidental hit with the Buddy Guy-sampling “Beat Goes On” in 1998 (which they later even reworked for Britney Spears’ debut album), they decided to form an actual band and make an album. Bringing in their old mate Jarvis Cocker from Pulp to write lyrics for their one — and to date only — album was a masterstroke and gave the slightly kitchy beat music on Pickled Eggs And Sherbet both focus and its distinct civic theme. Featuring steel city cabaret legend Tony Christie on vocals, Walk Like A Panther is the towering high point (“Marie has set up home with a man who’s half my age, a halfwit in a leotard stands on my stage…” sets the mood perfectly), but there’s similar gold to be had in the brilliant spaceman-out-of-time complaints of electro thumper 1st Man In Space, featuring The Human League’s Phil Oakey. “I was the first man in space on our street…” deadpans Oakey. “Now I’m finding it hard to adjust. How are you supposed to open these new milk cartons? Why don’t they make Golden Nuggets no more?” Bafflingly, the track failed to replicate their two other singles’ commercial success so they decided to call it a day, yet few — if any — records from the decade have Pickled Eggs And Sherbet’s singular charm.