I don’t get AIR HAMMER. Listening to ‘Sword Of Fire,’ the debut album from crazy duo Aaron Elvis and the Reverend Ben Smith (who I’m guessing isn’t really a member of the clergy) is a frustrating experience. Every now and then you’ll catch a glimmer of potential and then they’ll spoil it; you can see they’ve got the ideas and the ability, but it’s like they’ve made a joint decision that the only way to make any sort of break is by trying to be as mind-bogglingly different as possible.
They introduce their album with some waltzing fairground music and overly theatrical singing; fair enough. The opening of ‘Boss Boss’ is actually pretty cool, showing off a nice chunky guitar riff. ‘Sales Pitch’ is the same really – it sounds okay – unfortunately by now, the AirHammer formula is starting to become clear; they’re not intent with simply writing music. Everything must receive the AirHammer stamp of eccentricity; in other words every ‘good bit’ must be punctuated with an annoying pantomime vocal or a cuckoo clock sound effect or something.
‘On My Farm’; ‘My Mother Germany’; ‘Dans Mon Couer’; all best described as oddities. ‘Reality’s Hear’… again nice guitars, sounds a bit like Black Sabbath. ‘Don’t Play Me For A Fool’ is a perfectly listenable pop song. ‘Funny Thing That/Who Am I Then’ is fine too, especially if you don’t mind saxophones.
It’s all quirky stuff. There’s a song called ‘Chess,’ which starts off with a folky acoustic guitar and moseys along quite nicely until they start singing about, um, playing chess. I’m sure there’s plenty of metaphorical significance to be gleaned there, if you’ve got the patience.
|
Then there’s a track (and former single) called ‘Pissed Off’; a thrashy, angry song about being, well, pissed off with a woman. They should have reserved the name for the song that follows it; ‘My Sweetheart’ is overpoweringly saccharine, tongue in cheek granted, but the nasally vocal makes me want to smash up the CD player.
But wait! Could that be what these zany avant-garde wind-up merchants have had planned all along? To inspire a reaction? Any reaction? Might be; the red mist has passed now though, leaving me feeling drained, like I’ve spent an hour with Colin Hunt out of the Fast Show.
And that’s about it; to say you’ll either love or hate AirHammer is an understatement. I’m absolutely certain that there are people out there who will love this; I’ve met one or two of them, and you probably have too – they’ll like it specifically because most people don’t. Besides, it’s got a barcode on the back so they’re obviously expecting someone to buy it. And it’s different, that’s for sure…
|
