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SoundaSc

Here’s a style you don’t
stumble across every day.
About 1980 in South London,
the son of a Welsh preacher
met the son of a Glaswegian
trade unionist at an under-
ground acid house. By mid
1990 they were known as A3
and continue to be one of the
most innovative bands on the
alternative scene with their
music a catchy “mingling of
Hank Williams, gospel and
acid house.”

Former releases of A3
weren't particularly “together,”
sounding more like a nasty
mix of who knows what but
they seem to have evolved

A3
La Pesie
Columthia/Somy

Declared “two helpings of
genius on one platter,’
Glasgow band AC Acoustics
is taking a second shot at
success after a bumpy road
leading to one breakup
already. 1992 saw the
Wien reforming of the band at the

es prompting of frontman Paul
Campion.

With Canadian label True
North records taking charge
of AC’s release in Canada;
AC Acoustics promises to be
a popular up-and-comer.

With a history of noisy
experimentalism — including
guitar, sax, violin, AC has
completely reversed its for-

-

Limp Bizkit

world. Presenting 13 tracks
Flavored including one which is “so
phat it had to be presented in
two different versions in order
to fit everything in,” the entire
CD is “deeper, denser and
harder hitting” than any Bizkit
CD to date. Drummer John
Otto states “it’s us with differ-
ent edges.” 7
Following the previous hits
of Nookie, Rearranged and
Break Stuff, to name a few,

He won't leave but he’s a
Chocolate Starfish and ‘ving force behind the rock
the Hot Dog

their sound throughout the
new millennium to encom-
pass both the subculture
which influences them heavi-
ly and more mainstream
styles. The real breakthrough
or “arrival-on-the-scene-for-
sure” was apparent when A3
led a 26 piece gospel choir
through Woke Up - This
Morning on the Tonight Show
with Jay Leno. Blanket expo-
sure in the US for the band
came when the TV Mafia
series The Sopranos” used
Woke Up This Morning for
their theme song.

From the last review, you
might remember that the A3

mula to a quick paced guitar,
drum formula - with other
influences in the background
ranging from strings to brass.
Their first breakthrough
came when they obtained
support slots with PJ Harvey
and The Jesus Lizard in
Glasgow in ‘93. Since then
AC has played a variety of dif-
ferent venues sometimes
popular, sometimes obscure,
mostly in Britain.
1996 saw them tour the UK
with Placebo and Linoleum,
when Paul admitted that “the
songs are written in the?uni-
versal language of love ‘and
loathing...they are like plays

the mest, promising track on

this CD sounds like it's going
to be Hot Dog, where the 5
man piece takes a shot at
Nine Inch Nails.

Keywords for Chocolate
Starfish are bigger, badder,
harder, heavier, phatter,
funkier. Otto goes on to
explain that “ there’s a lot of
really good melody, and
everything about every part is
pretty catchy...it's new and
really melodic. There’s all
kinds of different hooks going

house band first convened in
the First Preslyterian Church
of Elvis the Divine. According
to A3, they “continue to feel
the spirit” but now they are
aided by Chemical Brothers
mixer, Steve “Dub” Jones,
who “co-produced the album
but refused to wear a stet-
son.”

1997’s release, Exile on
Coldharbour Lane quickly
gained cult status but La
Peste “whittles A3’s needling
pleasure implement down to
an even sharper point.”

A3 has a variety of different
influences to their style.
Diverse and unique, this style

for several voices, they have
several characters rather
than just me. | like the lyrics
to read well rather than the
typical primary school
stuff...’m more interested in
half rhymes than obvious
rhymes.” This explains the
experimenting with piano and
cello.

The result - an unquestion-
ably witty, intelligent and
smart CD -in which every
track tends to sound the
same. For the first few tracks,
it rocks you with absolute
genius in both the lyrics and
the music. The problem is
that it continues to do this

on within the music. You
could listen to the music by
itself, really but once the
vocals get over and Lee does
all his DJ stuff, it takes it up to
that enormous, killer level.”

Unquestionably Limp Bizkit,
if you liked Bizkit before this
release, you will like this
release too. If you didn’t like
them, then don’t bother trying
to see if they changed.
Chocolate Starfish is more of
the same but maybe a bit dif-
ferent and a bit better.

be

Nov er 20. 2

has yet to be matched by
anyone, anywhere.* Most
unique may be A3’s cover of
the Eagles Hotel California.

In the alternative world, A3
is the “anti glossy dance
mags and star DJ’s and
superclubs and girls in fluffy
bras.” Music for them has a
soul and with the conglomer-
ation of. influences which A3
has at its disposal, a listener
is in for some surprisingly lis-
tenable diversity.

-Kevin Milos

throughout the entire CD
without changing the formula.
As a result, you can only lis-
ten to about three or four
tracks before you fall asleep.
AC Acoustics definitely adds
a touch of intelligence which
tends to be sadly lacking in
the majority of mainstream
lyrics though. If they evolve
to a more diverse range of
styles, the future could: be
very bright for them.

-Kevin Milos

What accounts for the dif-
ferences? This one has
Stone Temple frontman Scott
Weiland, Josh Abraham and
Swizz Beatz helping out with
the production, and bringing
more diversity to the us-
against-the-world everyone
knows Limp Bizkit so well for.

-Kevin Milos

SoundScape welcomes your opions and contributions.

if you ee please contact Over The Edge at
over-the-edge @ unbc.ca or (250) 960-5633