Hickey Underworld - Mystery Bruises

by Peter Allison

published: 13 / 8 / 2009

Label: Naive Records
Format: CDS

Incohesive-sounding debut single from Belgium garage rock four-piece, Hickey Underworld

Review

Hickey Underworld, a Belgium garage rock four-piece, have recently released their debut single 'Mystery Bruise”, with mixed results. Sounding not unlike the Boo Radleys with distortion set to maximum, their vocals were often overwhelmed by the music. Individually, the band work very well, lyrically, vocally, and instrumentally. But together the resulting sound is one of unintended discord and incohesiveness and I suspect that another day in the studio could have solved a lot of the distortion/volume conflicts. Time and experience will allow them to work together more harmoniously. The single sleeve artwork for 'Mystery Bruise' contains a plethora of Masonic-esque icons, and their website is a complex maze of symbolism, yet it seems far too much attention has been paid to the imagery rather than content. I fully support content which exists beyond the music, but the CD only contains the single track, with no B-sides or remixes, which seems a missed opportunity given how much space is left on the CD. Likewise the aforementioned lack of cohesion only reinforces this impression. Overall, this is a disappointingly flawed result of what could have been an impressive debut single if more attention had been paid to the music and band structure, rather than the artwork and website.