January 29, 1999
London W1 Improv Theatre
In their desperate attempt to cover every musical genre, [a]Audioweb[/a] have seemingly fallen for the lie of Cool Britannia...
"That's a great fucking song, our kid," shouts Martin, Audioweb's chief toaster, singer and general reminder that his band are Mancunians. Swaying slightly, you can't help thinking he's trying to convince himself as much as us.
Plunder and steal, that's the Audioweb way - whether it's indie, dub or vague punkiness. This, one presumes, is their way of staking their claim to be the soundtrack to the late-'90s cultural melting pot. In reality, you're left wondering if they've actually got one decent idea of their own.
Try as they might, they even fail to chronicle the mean streets of Manchester effectively - despite mentioning bulletproof vests. Instead the urban environment is reduced to a mere trifling irritation. It's matched for a similar dearth of inspiration only by their music.
Therefore their dub rock is done much better by their mate Ian Brown, they cover The Clash's 'Bankrobber' and shout "sensimilia" incessantly, and then they introduce new single 'Test The Theory' with the immortal words, "Chris Evans - nuff respect".
True, it's a harmless enough little ditty, but only that ginger fool and his braying sycophants could think it was cutting edge. In fact, take away the toasting and the odd junglist beat, and this could be The Lighthouse Family.
In their desperate attempt to cover every musical genre, Audioweb have seemingly fallen for the lie of Cool Britannia. As always, it has very little substance.
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