REVIEW: Electrafixion, Zephyr (WEA - UK)

- Joe Silva

As I plumment into the dreaded third decade of my existence, I find more and more that my new wave heroes of old are once again girding themselves up to reenter the pop arena. The results have, of course, been mixed. Those of you who were taken in by the more subdued, Anton Corbin-ized version of Adam Ant that's appeared in the stores as of late know what I mean. There must have been something to all that paint and feathers after all. But while there was a limited assurance that Adam could rise to the glory of his Frontier days, Electrafixion seem like a safer bet. Once known as the core of Echo and the Bunnymen, Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant are making a serious attempt to recapture the thunder the Bunnymen once had in their hip pocket in a new four piece. Soon to appear in the US on Elektra (no pun intended?), this single is probably the first on album reunion of the two since the Bunnymen disintegrated after the death of drummer Pete DeFritas. Sergeant temporarily took custody of the Bunnymen name along with their original bass player long enough to issue and to put together one listless collection of tunes and Mac dove into solo artist-hood with limited results. The four tracks that make up the UK CD single/EP are short on the Bunnymen's patented version of psychedelia and heavy with the fuzz driven garage riffs that Sergeant probably always had a penchant for anyway. Zephyr shows that Mac has lost nothing in the way of range and attack and that Sergeant's stadium sized guitar sound is as wonderfully left field and effective as it always was. There's the same breadth of atmosphere that the pair had at their Albert Hall heyday in 1982. The rest of the tracks are wrought at the same forge but with a noticeable dip in the melody factor than the lead track. Still, as second winds go, this show promises as much as anything of late, and the dynamics laid down seem to indicate that the live incarnation might be stunning. More to come. Be wary.