Word: hovercraft
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
DIED. CHRISTOPHER COCKERELL, 88, inventor of the Hovercraft; in Hythe, Hampshire, England. He got the idea by making an empty cat-food can float within a larger coffee can with gusts from a vacuum cleaner...
...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...
...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...
...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...
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. Experiment Below has a frighteningnumber of similarities with a horror film likeThe Bride of Chucky. Initially, the albumis innovative, promising and startling with itssudden climaxes and its metallic, synthesizedsound. Yet, Experiment Below loses itsshock value after the listener becomesdesensitized by the relentless repetition ofclimaxing patterns, as is the case with thesenseless gore in The Bride of Chucky.Music must...