Antihero - This is an Emergency
(Alpha Engineering)
www.antihero.org.uk

Four blokes from Stratford Upon Avon form a band. They play a lot of gigs in Cambridge before moving to London, when their gigging levels drop off. A year or so later, this album lands on my doormat invoking surreal feelings at the realisation that I only know three of the songs on here when I used to pretty much know Antihero's set off by heart. How things change. But anyway, the album: the main problem is that it's JUST NOT LOUD ENOUGH. You need to really, really whack the volume up on the stereo to get anything approaching a satisfying level of aural assault out of this, which is a bit of a shame considering that Antihero's brand of feedback-laden sample-shot fresh-faced sneering rock'n'roll is at its best when blasted into the eardrums at a decibel level which threatens to liquidise your eyeballs. So: crank up the volume to a seemingly absurd level before putting Emergency on. And then brace yourself for the howling rage of UK Garage Girl, the pulsing sneer of Don't Trust the DJ, the sneer density of rushing, tumbling noise which this record does contain; it's just that you need to unleash it yourself. Do so, and Antihero will make it worth your while.

Holl(i)y