f you don’t know this one, you will. It’s the one that begins with a porno wah guitar riff right before some dude named Dick Valentine yells “Fire in the disco! Fire in the Taco Bell!”. Yes, seriously.

Detroit’s Electric 6 (formerly known as Wildbunch) have scored what it is likely safe to say, the best single of 2003. Yeah, it’s a risky call this early on, considering it was getting radio play in the UK in November and was originally supposed to come out in 2002, but what other pop song is gonna beat this? This song fooled the British into making it number 2 on the singles chart. I shit you not. It would have reached the top spot had it not been for one of those television show creating pop bands (whose singer is partial to racial slurs and picking fights with bathroom attendants).

In many ways, “Danger! High Voltage” is pisstaking. It sounds like Tom Jones doing Roxy Music with Disco Stu’s inebriated Earth, Wind & Fire tribute band backing him up. There’s the bit about disco and Taco Bell, yet the chorus of “Danger! Danger! High Voltage! When we touch and when we kiss!” is where people on the dancefloor will lose it. What exactly makes Electric 6's hit such a good, mainstream single? It’s absurd and infectious, yet at the same time, it isn’t some run of the mill, manufactured pop band’s single that has been OK’ed by a thousand executives. This song was originally released two years ago on the tiny Flying Bomb label. It’s already been around the block in Detroit and on last year’s bumpin’ and grindin’ bootleg compilation by 2 Many DJs (tucked in between the appropriate “Human Fly” by The Cramps and Les Rythmes Digitales “Hey You What’s That Sound”) . The fact that band members are named Tait Nucleus (keyboards), M (drums), Disco (bass) and Anthony The Rock ‘N’ Roll Indian (guitar) is also a bonus.

What may be the strongest selling point for many, however, is the guest vocalist who shouts along with Valentine. In the credits his name is John S. O’Leary, but it’s a very familiar voice many believe to be Jack White from The White Stripes. White has repeatedly denied it is him and even goes so far to admit that he doesn’t even know the band. Well, if it’s not actually him, I will donate my two left testicles to scientific research. White, the man who knows and has played with every musician from Detroit, seems to forget just how damn recognisable his screechy voice is. Next thing he’s gonna tell us is that Meg is his sister.

Anyway, Electric 6 will be the party band of 2003. Jocks will embrace their flaming, over the top enthusiasm and really, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Their next single is called “Gay Bar” and it’s gonna cause another fire in the disco, you watch.

P.S. I didn’t forget to mention the B-sides. They just aren’t very good. Buy this for the A-side.