A couple of years ago, Jason Levine and James McCollum wrote a few songs that didn't quite fit in with the kind of music their band, "The Philosopher Kings" were playing. Rather than merely release an album as a side project, they kind of went overboard, inventing a pair of cartoon characters, and creating a story around the pair (which can be heard on an unlisted bonus track at the end of the CD). Their animated alter egos, Simon and Milo, are "Prozzak," and their endless adventures in search of true love are the stuff that the "Hot Show" is made of.

Musically, "Prozzak" is all about dance pop - the kind of stuff that took the Pet Shop Boys to popularity. McCollum, as vocalist/keyboardist Milo, sings in a sometime annoying Brit-accent (seems authentic, anyway - maybe he grew up in England). At their most annoying, these guys should hit it big in dance clubs, with monotonous bass thumps distracting from whatever else might be going on in about half of the songs on "Hot Show." The worst of these is "I Like To Watch," which is somewhat reminiscent of the song "I'm Too Sexy" by "Right Said Fred." Levine's Simon character provides vocals for this voyeuristic track, and delivers the punchline in a horrible, guttural Germanic monotone.

The "pure"dance beat driven tracks aren't all bad, however. On a couple, the beat is far enough in the background to allow the pop side to come through. The remake of "Wild Thing" is a fun ride, if only because it's somewhat familiar. "Sleep With Myself" is actually a pretty good song, with the guys turning around the usual female complaint that all guys want is sex, and aiming it at the women in their (fictional) lives.

At their best, the "Pet Shop Boys" make a pretty good comparison for "Prozzak." These guys have some solid pop sensibilities, which show through on a number of songs not dominated by the monotonous beat. A couple of the best tracks on "Hot Show" are the title track and "Shag Tag," both founded on a sexy (bossa nova?) groove, and augmented by Jon Levine's guest turn on the distinctive Wurlitzer organ.

The latter is representative of the clever lyrics employed by Milo and Simon to tell their story - even as the overall message is a celebration of sex games (as the title implies), they throw in some cool little one-liners that really get you thinking, "Do you remember how we used to play/ Running around playgrounds every day/ Now we're tied to adult situation/ The rules for play have different connotations." Of course, the thinking part of that lyric is somewhat diluted by the fact that the next line is, "Take your clothes off."

It's a trend repeated throughout the disc, and the ultimate expression of the serio-comic tone is found on the song "New York," my favorite track on the disc. Swelling violins and stereotypically romantic sounding interludes set the listener up for a beautiful love story. Unfortunately, there are financial troubles brewing in the middle of all this romanticism, what with Milo singing about, "I can't afford to live in New York City/ And she can't afford to leave."

Their award-winning website fills in a lot more details on the 'history' and further adventures of Milo and Simon. It's worth a look, even if you have no plans to get the album. As for the disc itself, if you like the genre, you should really check it out. Even if you're not, there are a few good tracks that should make anybody happy.