Born as a mere project in 2000 and led by singer-songwriter Jamie Stewart, Xiu Xiu makes music that inspires adoring passion (daily mailing of blood-covered, pink knitted underwear) or hateful violence (a punch in the chest after a show in Houston). They're named after the film Xiu Xiu (The sent down girl, USA, 1998), a chilling drama set amidst the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and they make painfully autobiographical, melancholic and histrionic music. The band is influenced, of course, by British pop and post-punk, techno and the mellow improvisation of lo-fi, but as opposed to most contemporary bands, which filter tradition through a mesh that exposes the sources of inspiration, Xiu Xiu's influences are not as obvious. Providing how difficult it is to find a truly original group nowadays, Xiu Xiu can really be considered as such. Their songs blend contradictory elements –abrasive sounds and hypnotic melodies, emotion that exposes its vulnerability whilst at the same time scandalising with its desperation, beauty and ugliness- that can both disorientate to the point of disgust or prove irresistibly seductive. "Fabulous Muscles" was the group's third album, after "A promise" and "Knife Play", and was licensed for Acuarela in Spain, France and Portugal after falling in love with Xiu Xiu's talent to vigorously challenge rock music clichés through their wide range of unexpected breaks, juxtaposed sounds and a handful of factual lyrics about the lack of love and desire and about what happens when we feel too much love and too much desire. Now, in their new "Fleshettes" single, a wordwide exclusive on Acuarela, they once again expose old confessions amongst guitar notes and insidious feedback; carnal laments that seek their place amongst a jungle of echoes, insinuations and embarrassment. One of the songs is the live favourite and absolute gem "Helsabot of caraleebot", normally sung by Caralee's tender voice at the end of the best Xiu Xiu's concerts.