Hovercraft

Schema

Heard Here Rating:
"Pass the Cranberry sauce, Aunt Nelly. I could use a few more servings of this!"

Formerly known best as "the band with Eddie Vedder's wife in it," Hovercraft has been thrilling and frightening audiences around the world with their unparalleled live show, which features a homebrewed film collage to provide a visual component to their visceral No Wave psychedelia. Guitarist Cambell 2000 has planted his flag on a whole new land of abstract guitar playing, coaxing beguiling chimes, slashes, hums and explosions from his six-string. Their debut album on Mute America Records, Akathisia was a journey into the darkest reaches of the schizophrenic/psychedelic mindset, while the follow-up Experiment Below trimmed the fat and went straight for the jugular.

In Schema, Hovercraft teams up with Stereolab's Mary Hansen in what at first seems to be an odd pairing but ultimately makes perfect sense on wax. "Unde" starts things off in typically ominous Hovercraft fashion with Hansen's vocals moaning over the top until the inevitable flying-down-a-wind-tunnel rush takes hold.

"Echolalia...Curvilinear" concedes Hansen's trademark "la-la's" as Hovercraft ebbs and flows furiously. "Far From Where We Began" is the most Stereolab-ish track on the LP, recalling Transient Random Noise-Bursts with Announcements with its hard-driving Motorik beat. Campbell's guitar gently nudges your brain along, teasing it with almost-melodies. A fine addition to both bands' respective catalogs, hopefully Schema will lead to further unexpected cross-pollination.