Four boys from Vancouver gathered five years ago and grouped as Mystery Machine. Arming themselves with a strong Husker Du influence and the standard rock instruments, they set forth in the world of sounds.
Their latest effort, 10 Speed has all the elements of a contemporary rock band. With a strong sound, cohesive melodies and technology on their side it seems there's nothing left for them to cover. Precise, with a very tight flow, 10 Speed is produced in a manner most albums should. This is a great listen!
The first track is actually a Quicktime movie. If you don't have Macintosh System 7 or Windows 3.1, you probably won't be able to experience it. Which is too bad, because these short pieces nicely round up their music. The first thing that loads is a short film of a scatter. Did anyone have a Fisher Price "pixel 2000" camera? It was very low quality, but much, much fun - and this actually looks like that. It follows the scatter all over a town. The action is in real-time and sped up. One of their instrumental songs follows the action, pacing the rhythm of each turn. The next piece is live footage of track #8 "Sinker". If you try to exit early, they throw in a special surprise. No I won't tell you, it'll spoil things!...
All in all, 10 Speed is a complete representation of what a good pop band should be. The sweet hardness of rock, all the high end visual resources at their disposal and cool pictures to laugh at in the CD sleeve. Why wouldn't you just love it?
