No 417: Soda Boys

Hometown: London.

The lineup: Black Fantastic, Schweppes Incorporated, Rembo, Fizzy Cokah, Mountain Jew, Juice Jones, Liquid Disco, Sarsaparilla Funk, The Big Gulp, Cherry Pop.

The background: You just know from its title, Everybody Cha Cha, that Soda Boys' debut single is going to be a club banger, a heavy party joint, an unavoidable invitation to get down, or rather up, and boogie, as our friends in Silver Convention used to say. It's the law: any song bearing the collective pronoun is bound to be a universally inclusive thank-God-it's-Friday dancefloor anthem. Proof? Everybody Dance by Chic, Everybody Salsa by Modern Romance, Everybody Hurts by REM. OK, maybe not that one, that's more funereal than fun, but you get the point. The "cha cha" bit is what gives it away – not that you'll be expected to have intimate knowledge of said 50s Latin American dance, or any other antiquated terpsichorean manoeuvre, to enjoy it, although we feel the Charleston might work, if not the black bottom.

So who are the Soda Boys? We have no idea. They're a bunch of DJs and MCs with too much time on their hands and a desire to create Jaxx-influenced house-pop and nu disco. We know they only got together this year, and that's pretty much it. Their noms de disque don't give a lot away, being a series of pseudonyms, but we do know they're from all over the place, geographically if not emotionally. They're something of a loose collective, a rainbow coalition, who, as well as making music, operate in the worlds of art, photography and fashion. They remind us a bit of Public Enemy, not musically, but in the way they seem to divvy up the roles of the members of the band - the art and fashion side of things are the domain of Black Fantastic and Rembo, for example, while production is handled by two gentlemen called L.A.D. and Smith the Mr. The latter is also an artist in his own right and something of a recluse, who sends the music and vocals via the internet from his studio retreat while a representative attends interviews complete with an attaché case containing a phone on which Smith the Mr responds to enquiries via a representative. Course he does. We are also alerted as to the presence on vocals of a rapper called Fizzgod the Robot, better known as Dave aka Trugoy the Dove or Plug Two from De La Soul (or David Jude Jolicoeur to his mum).

But forget facts – facts, as our other friends Talking Heads once said, just twist the truth around. All you need to know is Everybody Cha Cha is out now, and with its speed rap, memorable rising synth melody and clattering beat, is headily insistent, undeniably groovy and as invigoratingly fizzy as a mouthful of – sorry, folks - soda.

The buzz: "Wicked tune. Jackin' beats and intense bass. Love it!"

The truth: And just wait till you hear their other tracks, Oh My God, The Coke and The Devil Wares [sic] Gucci.

Most likely to: Take your mind off the credit crisis.

Least likely to: Take credit for inventing a new dance sub-genre: fizzy disco.

What to buy: Everybody Cha Cha is released by Soda Boys on their own label on November 3.

File next to: Basement Jaxx, Plastic Little, Playdoe, the Gibson Brothers.

Links: www.myspace.com/sodaboy4ever

Monday's new band: The Operators.