The Computers - You Can’t Hide From The Computers

(Muso's Guide, December 11, 2008)

Album Review

“Destroy everything,” The Computers’ frontman Alex Kershaw screams by way of introduction to this, the Exeter quartet’s mini album. Yep, that’s right - anarchic existential angst from Exeter, and golly, has it been a long time in coming.

If that’s a command, like a hardcore style call-to-arms, the best bet is to obey. Destroy everything.

From opener ‘Teenage Tourettes Camp’, this musical soundtrack to your worst nightmare is an attempt to fuse the spirit of hardcore - Black Flag are cited fairly regularly on the band’s MySpace page - and the wonder of rock’n'roll like Chuck Berry. Other influences are said to include The Clash and Elvis Costello and the Attractions.

If Elvis Costello thought for a second that The Computers’ output was directly inspired by something he had put his hand to, some might be willing to bet he would bury his own family under every copy of My Aim Is True ever sold, so devoid of the sort of intelligence and purpose of that record do The Computers seem to be.

So, after ‘Teenage Tourettes Camp’, the record touches upon up-tempo ‘Love The Music, Hate The Kids’. It’s loud, and tuneless, and fairly obnoxious. ‘Must Try Harder’ is more of the same, although mercifully clocks in at under two minutes, and bizarrely has something of the ‘No Particular Place To Go’ about it. Just kidding. This is all The Computers.

By the time it gets to ‘S.O.S.’, rather wittily standing here for, er… ’save our souls’, it’s really a case of seeking something here that means The Computers have a future.

They claim to follow Black Flag, but they lack the ingenuity - they claim to respect Elvis Costello, but they lack the tunefulness. In the face of this talent void, the only answer is to destroy everything - starting with a little record called You Can’t Hide From the Computers.