Howe used the name Germlin[1] for his solo work and has more recently performed and released skweee-influenced music as Ben Butler and Mousepad,[16] sometimes accompanied by drummer Bastian Hagedorn.
[3] The band gained attention for their flamboyant[3] and chaotic live shows[10] (often played with Howe and Rattray dressed in PE kits[9][18] and on the venue's dancefloor rather than the stage[19][20]), prominent visual style,[3][9] offbeat subject matter (with songs about unicorns,[21] lactose intolerance,[22] Lawrence of Arabia, breakfast cereal,[1] Magic Eye puzzles,[8] Jurassic Park and physicist Niels Bohr[11]) and their diverse and experimental musical style.
Their early work was noted as combining accessible pop melodies with unconventional, rapidly changing song structures[2] and disorientating bursts of synthesizer or electric guitar.
[1] The band garnered comparisons to artists such as The Locust, Melt-Banana, Animal Collective,[9] The Faint, Nintendo soundtrack music, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Atari Teenage Riot,[2] The Mae Shi, Lightning Bolt[17] and The Pastels.
[22] They were described by Terrorizer magazine as "[e]ither a council estate Butthole Surfers or just Japanese mimicry... odd and wrong",[23] and by Drowned in Sound as "a chiptune-gabba aerobics class soundtrack".