CHROME SPIRAL CLIMAX
'Freudian Tunnel'
Archetype Records, 1997

CSC are a group of 24 year old lads from Everton in England. They all have computer science degrees, are all geeks and all love music more than just about anything.

The press release I have says: "Freudian Tunnel may be the finest debut album from a British band ever, and that includes such established names as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who".

That's a pretty big rap. Critics in England are already saying that because the band utilises a computer they are just plagiarising other peoples' hard work, "scoring free flesh of a dying antelope", one London rag has said. But this is a little unfair.

Brendan Witherspoon, a self-proclaimed hacker and leader of the trio said the band knew they were going to be big when they discovered that all major Beethoven pieces, when recorded backwards, spliced up then recorded forwards, gave not only astonishing tunes, but also the apparent sound of people talking, and not stilted like in the backmasking trials of the '70s and '80s (Led Zeppelin, Motley Crue, Queen etc...) but actual lyrics.

Peter Sutherland, the band's 'funny one' mentioned his theory to The Guardian in July: that the spirits of old Beethoven and others like him had left a puzzle for artists like CSC to tap.

And tap they have. If you like house music you will be pleased. If you hate all niteclub music you will be converted. 'Freudian Tunnel' has precious moments, from the mysterious 'Tambourine Flash I still Got The Cash' and 'Fisherman Baskets For Sale', 'Reds They Come From Crook-ed Cross Drawing', 'Degrees and Degrees of Sanity' plus the boppy 'Regress Too Far Away', this album will sell well with both those in the drug culture and the people entrenched in other, more eclectic tastes. Yes! Album due out in early November.

-Carl Young (1997)