From the opening line of 'Please Please Please', where singer Pap drawls, "I was waiting for the sunsheeeine" like the long lost Italian bastard brother of the Gallaghers, its obvious that Les Fauves are going to be entertaining. And while it may have taken a while for Strokes-ish post punk to make it to Bologna, when it’s this much fun, who cares?They've supported the likes of Dirty Pretty Things and Art Brut, and claim influences such as Violent Femmes, Devo and The Cramps, and frankly that pretty much puts you in the right ball park. They've taken the cool, quirky garage keyboard punk of New York and added some Euro bonkers to it, which works amazingly well.'In The Fallout Shelter' is stripped to the bone in that way Violent Femmes do perfectly, mixing garage simplicity and pogo attitude and making into pop. 'Fava Go Go Dancer' is a genuine two-and-a-half-minute pop gem, which I can't wait to see live when they head this way in May. 'Twist Twist' gives a definite nod to New Traditionalists era Devo, while keeping the garage racket intact and the dancing pace up. After the chilled 'Atomic Winter', its back to pogo frenzy mode with 'Novara' (which reminds me of 'Turning Japanese' by The Vapours), and so it goes on. Oodles of late 70s post punk references, bonkers words (deliberate or not, they're thoroughly entertaining) and sing-a-long-a popiness makes this thoroughly enjoyable; The Strokes meets the circus, with lyrics by The Happy Mondays.Unfortunately things take a bit of a turn for the mediocre when the track numbers drift into double figures (with the notable exception of the rollicking 'Bombs on the Siae'), making me wish it'd been one of those 25-minute mini albums, but there's enough joi de vive in the first nine tracks to keep this spinning in my player for a long time yet. 80%Links Les Fauves [official site] [myspace]