Desalvo’s sound is a furious battle between prog showmanship and math metal technicality, all drenched in black, black humour. Imagine the aural equivalent of watching as that fella in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom tears your heart out and shows you it, laughing. Except in music form. We ask singer and renowned crowd terroriser P6 his thoughts on being in the best rock band in Scotland today.

Five years to make an album? What’s been keeping you?
‘High maintenance day jobs – Allan Stewart is in Idlewild, Alex Grant and Richie Dempsey are music techy folk, while I’m what the others describe as the band’s ‘Government Man’ – plus a desire to make the songs tight as possible. We know exactly what it takes to rise above the masses of boys in cardigans and suspect facial hair. Mostly it’s just we don’t see each other much.’

You’re now part of Mogwai’s Rock Action stable …
‘I still pinch myself about that one. They were impressed by our work ethic. They gave us three days of studio time, expecting an EP, and we delivered an album. It’s so stuffed full of ideas that the first six or seven songs written were eventually condensed into about a third of one song. That’s the idea.’

You’ve all been around the block enough to be cynical bastards, why aren’t you?
‘Music now feels like it did in the 80s. We’re dictated to by some middle-aged yuppie and his iPod so it’s hard not to dismiss hugely derivative, unimaginative bands. Better to focus on the positive – the wee gems out there. For us it’s the pleasure in getting out, doing our set and leaving people numb, with dazed expressions on their faces. Musically, we need a big hairy brush to clean things out; there’s a manky crust forming and Desalvo is a plumber.’

Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Thu 26 Sep; Mono, Glasgow, Sat 28 Sep. The album Mood Poisoner is out Mon 6 Oct on Rock Action.