AKIVA – ‘CANT BUY REVOLUTIONS’ 11 Track E.P. Akiva + Kurb records 2004.
Produced by Ru Cook + Akiva. Lost Boys studios, Cranfield.
Artwork by Malcolm Carter

I heard about this band from the Doubting Thomas band website, they will be playing Bedford soon so I thought I’d check out their E.P. from their C.D. launch gigs recently in Luton + St. Albans. Their 3-track single comes in a rounded hard plastic case, hard wearing enough to survive a night out in your pocket at one of their gigs. It’s supposed to have a video if you put it in to your computer, which would have made the first local C.D. I’ve seen to do this – but it didn’t work on my computer! The main E.P. comes well and professionally packaged as well, with an inlay depicting demonstrations, revolution press cuttings and a red circle giving an oriental flag like style.

The first track REFINED DEFIENCE kicks off with an electro sound effective start similar to a fruit machine with pulsating drum beats leading to the main tune, sung with a slightly lazy singing style and some orchestral style keyboards into the mix as well.
The second track HARD TO REMEMBER is also on the single and has a short spoken intro and has the basic twang of a Beatles or sixties-ish band sound, and with mention to parkers and Lambrettas I guess this is about Mods fighting.
HIGH OCTANE ADVENTURES comes over as one of those sing along to tunes with what I thought were some quite well written lyrics – “Drunken fighter sleazy rider”.
GHOSTS is a multi-layered song with dark openings and an acoustic sound with a metronome backing beat. It livens up as it progresses but is mainly quite a restful tune, which I found surprising because of the vigilante stance to the lyrics, having threats and violence to a restful tune. HONEST is a song about letting go and being cruel to be kind. It has a kind of weird off-kilter sound with acute bursts of acoustic vibes and doesn’t seem to know when to musically soften or let rip.
HITTING THE GROUND is also on the single, its quite a bouncy song and quite reminiscent to Ocean Colour Scene’; its about things that don’t always prove to be right and is basically written as a threat, with lyrics of destructive violence – ‘There no pussies these Akiva’.
NEXT TIME I WONT GET CAUGHT although the drumming is a bit boring in producing beats and not adding any flare or flourishes, there is however some better guitar riffs on this track, it has a kind of ‘Stones’ feel, it’s good but sounds a bit outdated with a less contemporary feel. 10:59 – well it’s no ‘Two Minutes To Midnight’ or any other Iron Maiden song, in fact it’s just not metal at all. It’s the last track off their single and shows an even lighter side to the band with piano, vocals and all to strummy guitars. It’s about not taking part and there not being any point. O.K. it’s a bit dull and ploddy but at least it shows that the band has variation, which they achieve well with this E.P.
After the next song (REVOLVER) which is a short instrumental including some backwards effects, the following song SOUL WEEKENDER is a slice of funky sounding rock n roll about spending your money on a booze laden bender weekend and would sound better I feel if they removed the keyboards on this one.
The final track RETRIBUTION has some additional input from Ru Cook, it’s a warning about not getting caught and has a soft approach to the sound, utilizing both acoustic and electric guitar sounds. Its quite a vocal orientated song with well sung, clear vocals without using the voluminous effort of a metal band style and is a longer song with an additional like part on the end.

This band have a hugely professional rock/indy sound, not abundant in guitar work and with lyrics of mayhem contrasting with the easy listening sound. I have to say, its good enough for radio d.j.’s to lap up if given the chance.

Keith www.bedfordmetal.tk