Around for a couple of years now, you may have heard the "electro-punk" moniker of three ex-chefs John, Dean and Ian. What you won't have heard is the band's new confidence, their fresh attack, and the conviction with which they are converting with their pulsating, rugged electro music.

Portion Control are riding in on the wave of interest which their previous dancefloor classics like 'Raise The Pulse' and more recently 'Go Talk' inspired; they're also attacking the targets that their recently acclaimed (but patchy) album 'Step Forward' had started to home in on.

Portion Control present pop as power, unpackaged and unpretentious. Now they have determination too: swimming harder against a tide that they already see is beginning to even flow with them.

"The mainstream really is becoming more like us, rather than us having to dilute our music to be successful," says John as we huddle over a chintzy table in downtown Covent Garden. "People are becoming to accept the harder side of things that we've been presenting now for a couple of years."

Not through any lack of work on their part either. After a support slot with Blancmange back in the spring, the three lads are taking a day off to talk to me between dates on the newly industrialised Depeche Mode tour. The clashes and contradictions are deliberate: Portion Control are packing their trunks and going for the hard sell.

"We're trying to offer a viable alternative, a challenge between us and the audience," says John. "the only way to do that is to play to people who aren't familiar with Portion Control, and are being presented with something they've never seen before. A lot of people must wonder what we're doing, but from our point of view we want to play to everyone."

Teenybop audiences included, and if you thought your average 14-year-old Depeche fan could only swallow the lumpen gravy of Man George and his ilk, you'd be far mistaken.

"People actually started fainting in Hanley," says astounded vocalist Dean. "And there's usually a lot of dancing around. They may not be our ideal audience, but they are being presented with something they've never seen before in the way of film shows and huge slides, and the reaction is really good. Which is a lot better than playing one-off gigs to the converted. We're not interested in being elitist."

With each release, Portion Control have subtlely blended their power and rhythm with a pulsating beat and a raw vocal from mean'n'moody Dean, that attacks and assaults. It's not a recipe to everyone's taste, though.

"We think the vocal is a really positive point," says John. "But people have told us that it's irritating and take it as a hinderance, others think it's our most endearing quality."

The essence is that Dean's voice is an important and controlling factor, a harsh liberator of emotion in the sea of pop which leaves Portion Control bobbing around on the surface, rather than plunging to the depths of the Nik Kershaw squeaky clean vocal.

"The vocal is at odds with the music," continues John. "That's something we've always consciously worked around. In our sounds, we want a vocal construction, not repeated phrases or whispered voices. It's always been important to have the vocal up front."

It's a difficult course to steer, blending the imaginative with the commercial and the original, and to date the rewards for Portion Control have been slow in coming. The sound and the emotion is aggressive: is that how you're feeling? Angry young men?

"As a band yeah, we feel...not angry, but we've been going long enough to have hardened up to the music industry. We've gone so far ourselves without any help, and that's toughened us. We realise now that we can manage ourselves fairly well, and we can demand that people accept us for what we are and not what they could mould us in to."

Portion Control are stepping forward; but very gingerly. Like more and more bands who've held out for exactly what they want, they've struggled through the indie maze and tested themselves in what they can and cannot do.

"It's been said lots of times by lots of bands," says John. "But we're not prepared to compromise. We feel we can take on the mainstream on all levels as we are. The machinery is already coming towards us, and we've been going long enough not to worry. We'll do what we want to do.

We've already got two new songs written, which are by far the best and most confident things Portion Control have ever done."

They know this is the ripe time for new projects, and evidence of their fresh determination is something they're keen to embark on.

"We're confident that in the new year we'll have a new package together," says John. "Quite what will happen to that we don't know."

Part of the package will be the now inevitable video, though Portion Control hope to invest their time and money in some 16mm film rather than "scratchy video takes". New sound equipment, too (technology is all-important to the set up of the band), means they can aim to bring that hard-hitting energy onto vinyl in a more positive way than before.

But many bands have stood on the threshold of major success and then waivered: how would Portion Control feel if this time next year, say, the might of a major hasn't fallen at their feet, or if they're still being labelled (wrongly!) in uncommercial zones?

"Obviously we'd hope to be a larger name than we are now, muses John. "But we know our attitude brings obvious limitations. Basically, if we're progressing and it's all still fresh, and as long as it entertains us we'll keep going.

"Portion Control means everything to all of us. We've become so isolated within ourselves, and we've known each other so long now..."

Portion Control do confront, in an environment and a genre where few if any do. They could easily have stuck to the dancefloor, revelled in the success of cult twelve inchers and sucked in the independent spirit they seemed destined to nurture. But by taking their basically commercial boldness onto the platform and by attacking where many would fear to
tread, they've crossed practically uncharted water: chart potential, without the blandness.

"People are likely to think we're just in two minds about things," says John in answer to a criticism that their attitude merely reflects indecision on their part. "There's the contradiction of Dean's voice, and the fact we're an indie band playing mainstream support.

"But it's always been like that, bands who don't seem to fit. It's just a question of pulling it off."

>From sweaty discos to housewives choice, the gyrating sounds of Portion Control deserve big helpings of your time. 'Step Forward' is just a sampler of the new improved Portion Control to come, and if the new music matches the determination, the bite is ready to sink further.

Don't accept seconds...

© Sounds 1984

Digital assistance and credit: Simon Dell <simon@stroppy.demon.co.uk>