ANGLO-Parisian band Mono Taxi, who recently cancelled a gig in Newport, will bring their punky-funk and finely balanced harmonies to South Wales in February.

The band were to push their new single Kind Of Better with an appearance in the Meze Lounge on Wednesday, October 12. But now they will play Barfly, Cardiff on Wednesday, February 1 with The Research in support.

Their latest single, Kind Of Better, was released on Monday, October 10 on Play It Again 7, which is a new 'Singles Club' from the PIAS record label.

Mono Taxi formed a year ago in the suburbs of Paris and recently relocated to London to make it big in pop.

The band is based around two vocalists, British born Ellice Williams and Frenchman Antoine Collin.

They mix influences from The Velvet Underground, Pixies, My Bloody Valentine and contemporaries like Moldy Peaches.

Their guitars have fuzzy edges and there's a healthy love of lo-fi Americana and the added punch of an analogue synthesizer. The sound came to the attention of the British public when Steve Lamacq declared the demo they'd sent him the best he'd received in a very long time.

Demos then spread across the land from station to station and finally the song found its way to PIAS.

The band then recorded it properly with producer Mike Crossey (Artic Monkeys, The Zutons) ready for its vinyl-only release next week.

The band first appeared on a compilation of French popular music called Le Nouveau Rock'n'Roll Francais, which was released by the V2 record label. Their track, Nothing Wrong With Us, was one of two dozen French nuggets from a punk scene being touted as the best in years.

The bands, hitherto unknown to UK rock fans, all craft 'vive le punk rock' tracks with scuzzy synth lines while mainly singing in English. Mono Taxi is the first of them to make it to Wales. Let's hope they don't let us down this time.

For more info surf to either www.monotaxi.com or www.pias.com/uk.