Hogbitch

Hogbitch

Written by: EW on 23/03/2014 10:20:55

I have been provided little information on the entity that is Hogbitch in the build-up to this review so rather than waste time describing their heritage and background let's just get straight into the groove shall we? This female-fronted rock act thrive off the heritage of 70's rock acts like Sabbath, Pink Floyd and Hawkwind as well as acts who would kill for a 70's heritage, whether that is the 80's Saint Vitus, some of the 90's grunge acts or much more recent heritage bands like Kadavar. But befitting the plainly blunt nature of the band's name is the execution of those influences which is a shaky mixture of the palatable, common and plain boring across the 11 songs on this self-titled debut. At the heart of this is a colourless production which leaves the guitar tone a toothless mess in a sound wholly undistinguishable from the masses of local bands found in every big town, as well as a vocalist who in her standard delivery simply does not have the conviction or presence to warrant any exultations of pleasure, until that is the loosening of shackles in "Hameh". Before that point though the strongest suit of the album is revealed: the bass. In "Black Corridor" the slowly creeping riff is distinctly Geezer Butler-esque and arguably the highlight of the whole album for me. The crashing chorus riff which bookends these sections merely highlights the ineffectiveness of the contributing guitar at these points, although the soloing in this and "Slaves of the Ether", as two examples, are much more worthy of their disc space despite their plainly obvious performance imperfections.

Where there are these good moments there are conspicuous bad ones, however. The five minutes of "Never" is utterly, utterly boring, attempting a cross between Nirvana's "Something in the Way" with the hammond organ of Floyd but failing miserably thanks to the discordant guitar work and failing rhythmic ambition through the interconnecting verses. Instrumental interlude "Life Begins and Ends in the Subterranean" again reminds of Floyd, specifically "Echoes", albeit without the sonic appeal or psychedelic depth. "Maidenhead" ticks all the boxes of a minor band writing a typical minor band song while "Skin Don't You Know Me" does not display any coherence between instruments in the build-up to the choruses, with a whole plethora of percussive sounds simply adding to the chaos.

Amongst the confused compositions and basic song structures there are dashes of ability on show here, notably in the bass department, but I'd be lying if I said this self-titled debut leaves Hogbitch anywhere but a very long way short of producing a record worthy of wider attention.

3

Download: Hameh, Black Corridor
For the fans of: Hawkwind, rock
Listen: Bandcamp

Release date 04.02.2014
Dogfingers Recordings

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