It's like watching the moodiest noir arthouse movie with your eyes closed - Death In Vegas construct epic sonic excursions that sound like they should be part of a soundtrack to a stylish murderous thriller. Richard Fearless and Tim Holmes are the masterminds behind Death In Vegas. It's taken Mr. Fearless and friend seven years to gain recognition for their always surprising, never complacent, cross-breed of trip-hop, soul, dub, blues, post-punk, and industro-goth. Richard Fearless was halfway through completing fine arts and graphic design degrees at the London College of Printing when the music gradually took over. He became a regular DJ at the Heavenly Social - the same club that spawned the Chemical Brothers.

"The graphics feed the music," says Richard, whose almost anti-pop-art style festoons the band's CD covers. The debut singles Opium Shuffle and Dirt became unlikely dancefloor smashes, despite being heavily guitar-based. Death In Vegas' debut album Dead Elvis was embraced by the big beat and dark techno scenes when it was released in 1997.

"It was a learning curve for me," says Richard. "I don't look at it now as being anything compared to The Contino Sessions." Released last year, and named after the band's London recording studio, The Contino Rooms (where Richard practically lives), the album Contino Sessions has received incredible critical acclaim. Featuring guest vocal appearances from Dot Allison (ex-Doves), Jim Reid (Jesus & Mary Chain), Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream) and the London Gospel Community Choir, it twists and turns like the most dangerous turnpike road. Another track on the album, Aisha, featuring the legendary Iggy Pop, suddenly bounded into the top 10. It was molten metal, fused with the catchiest breakbeat ever conceived. The lyrics were pure Iggy - a paranoid psychopath on the rampage, and in your home via your stereo right now.

"I was amazed. It was the most brutal track on the album." We wrote the songs with those artists in mind. The best moment of my life so far had to be when we got everyone together, including the choir, to play at Shepherd's Bush. Iggy had to drop out at the last moment, but it was still brilliant."

Right now, Richard is suffering from jetlag. He's just back from his first holiday in four years, to India. "I'm not a jetsetter. It was a £300 job off the Teletext," he's anxious to point out. It is in India where he intends to record half of his third album. "It's all hush-hush at the moment. We haven't laid anything down yet, but there's loads of ideas floating around."

Out now is the single Dirge 2, the reworking of the original intense seven-and-a-half minute album track made into a radio-friendly pop tune - at least that was the intention, but that oppressive industrial grit-guitar is still pounding forth mercilessly. Richard hopes to get his record company Concrete to release a track called One More Time as a single. It was recorded shortly after the Contino Sessions, and features Bobby Gillespie on vocals. "It's like Northern Soul. It's gonna throw a lot of people," Richard says gleefully. "Everything we've done is soulful. What's gained us respect is we've always stuck to our guns, and created something that has been hard work. We've put our shoulders into producing a work of beauty."

The full live Death In Vegas, which is decidedly different than how they sound on CD, features a nine-piece band playing an array of percussion, brass, drums, guitars, and banks of synthesizers. We were hugely fortunate to have them play a one-off date nearby at Gloucester Guildhall - a warm-up to Primal Scream supports at Brixton Academy. The first thing we see is a huge backdrop with flashing images of a tortured man and grey towerblock stacks. The band, all nine of them, are shrouded in darkness throughout. Dual goth guitars and solid breakbeats compete with live rock drums, and there's a brass section hidden within the recesses of the stage. Meanwhile, Richard Fearless is imagining he's playing Hammond for Booker T and the MGs. In this unimaginable collusion of music forms, an industrial foundry crumbles to dust and a euphoric soul takes its place. It is equivalent to a panoramic cinematic experience for the ears (if that is feasible). The projectionist warps his lenses, alternating a series of powerful looped images using biscuit tins, which he plays like bongos to malevolent beats. Minus their esteemed set of vocalists, Death In Vegas let the tunes speak for themselves. And they speak volumes, taking us down to the gritty monochrome states of despair and surging to uplifting technicolour - like when Dorothy gets whisked to the Land of Oz.

Iggy Pop's contribution to the even more brutal live Aisha is reduced to the recurring "Gods all suck." You can feel, thanks in part to the vibrating sprung dancefloor, the cruel majesty of the distorted guitars, like Joy Division combining forces with Ministry, the cold staccato steady rhythms, and Fearless' combination of jungle sounds and authentic 60's jazz organ. At any given moment, they slide into shuddering dub, open the floodgates with some Stax-inspired soul, or subside into a cluttering din. This is Death In Vegas, where anything is possible, and it all leaves the entire audience spellbound from the sheer power of that post-everything force, and more wordless sonic adventures of pleasure and pain pour out. Dot Allison's medusa-like siren rings out on the finale, Dirge, and the delicious undead drone of the guitars whoops the crowd into a kind of energetic ghost dance.

So what's next for Death In Vegas? Will they be travelling down an acid river, or perhaps climbing Mount Mollasses? "Actually, we're going to be doing the music for a gay porn movie with the director of Seven (and Fight Club - David Fincher)." It is straight gay porn, done in an arthouse way. It's beautifully shot. It sounds quite exciting, something different." We've also been asked to do the music for the Royal Shakespeare Company's King Lear. You can't get much more opposite than that."

Story by Sonicpress contributor, Owen Adams.