Electrafixion

Zephyr (Spacejunk/WEA)
by Chris Adams

I don’t think anyone saw this coming. After close to five years of baiting and bashing each other in the press, you’d think the only place former Bunnymen Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant would bury the hatchet would be in each others’ skulls. Ironically, they’ve not only kissed and made up, but actually formed a new group together. Electrafixion, however, are far from a thinly-veiled Bunnymen reunion. More cyanide kisses than lips like sugar, this band’s sound and approach is miles removed from the Bunnymen’s acid-drenched Turquoise Daze in the early mid-’80s.

Zephyr (Spacejunk/WEA) blasts off with a smoldering, primitive riff that sounds like a ’60s garage-punk band playing on Mars. McCulloch’s vocals still lend themselves to dramatics, but this time around they’re cut with a raw fury he rarely attempted with the Bunnymen (or, for that matter, in his solo stint as a post-modern Vegas-style crooner). Lyrically, Mac’s still obsessed with self-doubt and redemption, and “Rain On Me” indicates he hasn’t discarded his proclivity for elemental imagery. All in all, this EP is a fiery, undeniably solid debut, and, with an album due in the spring, Electrafixion may prove themselves to be the premiere existential troubadours for the post-Nirvana landscape.