Under Review

The Hypnophonics

The Last Band On Earth (Stomp)

Review By Adam Mannegren

Paper 3D glasses bespectacled and genre-bending band the Hypnophonics debut full-length The Last Band On Earth offers some high intensity cuts. With irreverent musicality and caustic vocals, it grabs hold of the listener, shakes them up and doesn’t let go until the end. The staple distorted guitars layered with the straight forward rock drums and upright bass give ample opportunity for head nodding and banging.

With a song inspired by the 1950s CIA mind control experiments and chemical interrogation research (“MK- Ultra”), the intended evoked emotions come through loud and clear: chaotic, confused, and wholly mind-smashing. The lyrics tell the story of a fortunate research participant who, thanks to some surreptitious governmental chemical ingestion, transcends the CIA’s spooky motives. Feel free to sing along with the three-letter acronym chorus (“CIA, LSD, CIA, LSD”)

The track “Tea Time” barely allows time to catch your breath, especially if chanting the chorus with the punk-hooligan backup choir. Surf-guitar interludes delight.

Twelve tracks deep, The Last Band on Earth is well done, and retains a lot of the energy from their pumped up shows, managing to maintain the appropriately rough-edged exteriority. The Hypnophonics have been rocking eastern Canada and the U.S. since their live show debut in 2007, and finally made it out west this fall. They already passed through Vancouver on their current cross-country tour, but fans of conspiracy-ridden, raw, neorockabilly can check out their website and MySpace for more distorted conspiratorial goodness.