Karen O, your days as a rock-chick pin-up are like so over. For there’s a new art-punk chanteuse on the block: The Human Value’s Turu. And, boy, does she measure up; to the extent that one suspects were Beavis and Butthead exposed to one of the band’s videos, they’d be rendered blind.

Vocalist/keyboardist Turu was born in NYC to Russian and Greek parents. After studying acting at Lee Strassberg Institute, she got involved in dance, music and fashion, the latter still an obvious passion although personally I think her best look would be minimalist, as in the less clothes the better. Turu went on to form the band Sukhotin (aka The Send Effect), once memorably described as purveyors of “angry, post-industrial, goth-influenced demon-pop.”

Cuban-born Hiram, who opened for The Raveonettes with old band Kittens For Christian, on guitar and drummer Lynnae, of Mexican and Irish descent, complete the multi-national line-up. The Human Value are exactly the sort of band you’d expect to headline a transsexual/transgender fundraiser. Which, of course, they recently did, although they’re a little reticent about the whole experience: “We promised not to discuss the events of that evening. Let’s just say we were “manhandled” and leave it at that.”

More Yeah Yeah Yeahs than Blondie but less Raveonettes than The Kills, THV are retro to the extent that like another great influence, The Cramps, they’ve got ‘Good Taste’. This debut album is produced, engineered, and mixed by the Grammy-award-winning Bruce Bouillet. And you can’t help thinking similar acclaim for the band is if not just around the corner, a realistic aim.

Possessing the capacity to monkey about with your heart beat, The Human Value are one potent arsenal of noise. Turu herself has special powers. She could give the most slumberous of men sleepless nights.

(3¾/5)