The Bride of Chucky, the latest movie starring the fatally adorable doll possessed by the soul of a serial killer, opened last weekend. The film was filled with gory and suspenseful moments, as every dark, quiet scene is violently and predictably disturbed by the axe-wielding doll's maniacal laughter and the horrified screams of his victims. But after prolonged exposure to this nonsense, Chucky's deathtraps became laughable and monotonous. Unfortunately, The Bride of Chucky is perfectly analogous with the new album release from Hovercraft, entitled Experiment Below. The record, relentlessly packed with strange noises and random samples, shows artistic promise and creativity in its initial tracks. However, Experiment Below only proves that Hovercraft can get an album produced based on a single musical idea as long as one of the members, Sadie 7, happens to be the wife of Eddie Vedder, lead singer of Pearl Jam.
The album begins in horror-like style with "Anthropod." This track begins with an interesting array of soft, slow drums, a soothing bass line and quiet samples. The song then releases a sudden onslaught of unconventional guitar riffs and loud synthesized noises, ranging from a ticking clock to the sound of dragging chains. This sudden outburst from apparent tranquility is incredibly frightening, particularly when listened to in a dark room in the wee hours of the morning. The initial effect of this outburst is powerful, as the overwhelming and deceivingly random sounds immediately pump the body with surging adrenaline, much like the opening scene of a horror flick. Eventually, the outburst fades into the initial lulling sounds, with some subtle variations. The listener is left wondering what will happen next, as "Anthropod" demonstrates the tremendously effective element of surprise in Hovercraft's music. The track continues with a few pseudo-build-ups, each dissipating before reaching a climax. Unexpectedly, the drums and guitar rip into a tsunami of sound and grinding samples, which is quite startling but seems to lack the adrenaline rush of the initial climax. The song then predictably fades into another quiet interlude, except this time the tranquil monotony spans almost four minutes without a single break.
At this point, the most unexpected aspect of the entire album occurs: the CD changes from track one to track two without any delineation. "Anthropod" plays continuously, and at an indiscriminate moment, the four-minute quiet interlude becomes "Phantom Limb." There is no silence between songs, nor a change in melody. This is not an anomalous occurrence on the album, as the different tracks are just names given to indistinguishable parts of a single, seemingly interminable song that composes the whole of Experiment Below. Six minutes into the album, Hovercraft demonstrates promising innovations and intricate, sudden and powerful changes in rhythm and volume. Even the lack of track closure initially appears to be interesting and unconventional. After another six minutes, these novelties become tiresome, predictable, and downright annoying. The listener becomes totally desensitized from the sudden climaxes, and the apparent randomness of the first track reveals itself as the single creative element of the album, which cycles itself in a timed repetition: there are approximately three minutes between each grinding climax.
Hovercraft still attempts to keep their sound fresh in each track. The subtlety of variation is completely overshadowed by the overall predictability, despite the intensity and suddenness of the rhythm changes and the unconventional use of sound distortions and samples instead of vocals. At times, the tracks are almost indistinguishable from one another, even in comparison to the most repetitive techno or punk; Hovercraft often makes The Ramones look ingenious. The band must have painstakingly tried to think of new, fresh elements to add to each successive song, but these efforts were unsuccessful.
The album presses onward to its most interesting track, "Transmitter Down." The climaxing pattern is still prevalent, but the rhythm is steady, and the choice and placement of samples are more inventive and interesting. The guitar distortion and synthesized beeps are steady enough to be danced to. This element, which is integral to the popularity of techno, is absent from Experiment Below. The rhythms are too haphazard to be heard at a dance club, but the melody patterns are too repetitive to be appreciated for its artistically creative elements. This places Hovercraft in a netherworld between light industrial and dance techno, a crossbred product that bears none of the enjoyable and successful elements of its ancestors. The only other danceable track is "Benzedrine," but this is the result of a static beat pattern that could easily be imitated by using a drum machine and some subtle mixing. The repetition concludes with "Wire Trace" and "Epoxy," which are conspicuous replicas of the linked tracks "Anthropod" and "Phantom Limbs," but with slightly faster beats. As a result,
Experiment Below exhibits another limiting pattern, as the order of the songs on the album is as symmetrical and methodical as an assembly line. Ironically, the straight jacket of conventional patterns ultimately subverts the intrinsic randomness of Hovercraft's musical style.
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