Let me point out that I have no qualifications whatsoever to "review" this music, but since there's nothing in distribution yet and everyone I tell to see them wants to know what they sound like... The only thing I could come up with, tentatively, is Sonic Youth from the Dirty or Goo albums. But that comparison only applies to the first three cuts here.

I've been listening to this tape off and on again all day. KH has a raw, edgy garage band sound, and the ensemble is lean and basic: vocals, bass, guitars, drums. However the sound they put out is far from basic. The guitar screams and wails like a thing alive, the rhythm and bass are steady and infectious, and the vocals work. To complain about something the vocals are a little thin, but this could just be part of the compromise of an early demo tape. When I saw them live a few months ago I had no such complaint.

Fucked Up Ending has a frantic urgency and makes me want to mix it up on the floor. The song itself seems to be about reaching that last desparate measure when you've lost the one person who meant anything to an untimely end and you think, Why am I still here?

Black Helicopter has a heavy, lugubrious take on a favorite fixture of conspiracy theories; I have this image of a World War I rhomboid tank cresting a trench when I hear the beginning of the tune. Which seems appropriate for a song about when you take that final left turn and realize "They" are going to storm your compound someday soon...

Leveraged is my favorite off this tape, I have to move when I hear it - the tag guitar and bass riffs and drums get right under my skin. To be honest I'm too busy grooving on the sound to pay too much attention to the lyrics yet...

She lies in State is a very respectable ballad that rounds out the collection and hints at what else the guys are capable of. At certain points early in the song I can't help but think of Lou Reed's storyteller narrative style when I hear it, but the song quickly turns off in its own direction.

Reviewed Spring/Summer '97