THEY say the devil is in the detail. Maybe, but god-like genius hangs out there, too. In a world that now seems to take notice only of melodramatic soundbites and grandiloquent gestures made against lurid, 2-D backdrops, I Am Kloot are a Harold Pinter real deal to everyone else's overblown, Cecil B de Mille mock-ups. The rough ‘n' tumble of realism is what makes Johnny Bramwell (singer/songwriter and guitarist), bass player Peter Jobson and drummer Andy Hargreaves tick. It's the source of I Am Kloot's misanthropic and surreal wit. When cut with their own brand of beat-up romanticism, it's also what caused a girl to faint clean away during the band's first gig outside Britain [in Paris on Valentine's Day, 2001] when she heard them play ‘Twist'.

Formed in Manchester, I Am Kloot made their live debut at the city's Night and Day venue in the summer of 1999 and were quickly snapped up by local impresario Guy Lovelady. He pressed up 1,000 copies in a brown-bag sleeve, hand stamped by the band, of debut single ‘Titanic'/‘To You' on his fledging Uglyman label. "It was an easy decision " explains Lovelady " they were the first band I'd seen in years who actually had something to say, something to really express. They're a contradiction, combative yet charming, punchy yet embracing".

Uglyman released a second single '86 TV's' / ‘Twist' in February 2000, but soon after the band signed to Wall Of Sound's new offshoot We Love You and in March 2001 they released their debut album ‘Natural History'. Critically recognised as one of the finest debut albums of the year, it more than confirmed their early promise as one of the best new bands around. "When we started I 'd just hit upon a vein of songwriting that had grown from stuff by Brecht, like 'Mack The Knife' " explains Bramwell. "Songs that I felt a part of myself, like a thief, scavenger or scallywag come to the fore, whispered and snarled at the same time. I wanted to take music that came from some obscure tradition and wack it straight into the present day. Carrying a club, a gun or a brickbat. These songs would come at you on crutches, with leg braces or in wheelchairs, an early review called me a club footed Gene Vincent, I fucking love that". Signing to The Echo Label in 2002 they released their eponymously titled second long player in September 2003 which coincided with a triumphant sold out show at London's Shepherds Bush Empire, the bands biggest UK show to date.

April 2005 and ‘Gods And Monsters' represents a fuller, more expansive chapter in I Am Kloot's musical autobiography. Recorded in Stockport's Moolah Rouge with producer Joe Robinson, it's thirteen songs are without doubt the trio's strongest and most ambitious to date. Consider darkly urgent, opener ‘No Direction Home', the drunken, fairground waltz suggested by the title track, ‘Ordinary Girl's noir-ish tale of murder, witchcraft and revenge, the Shadows-styled twang of ‘Stars Look Familiar' and the Piaf tradition that informs ‘Avenue Of Hope'