Initially, they were heavily inspired by The Jesus and Mary Chain – blending white noise with early Pavement-style experimentation and, on occasion, augmenting their two guitar, bass and drums instrumentation with saxophones and violins.

They parted with Yoyo in 2000 and moved to Cooking Vinyl, releasing a further EP Crush (continuing the Placebo connection thanks to backing vocal contributions from Brian Molko).

[6] The band's line-up was augmented by a keyboardist, Paul Murray, and two further albums, Understanding Music and O followed, the latter being quickly completed in ten days.

Understanding Music was described by The Scotsman as "their best album to date",[1] with The Times noting "intimate confessionals and juddering guitars that threaten to tumble from the skies".

[7] A favorable review in The Guardian said, "There are times when only introspection will do, and those are the moments when AC Acoustics come into their own"[8] whilst the NME claimed the album "...smashes the limited boundaries of its particular genre.