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Human Waste Project
E-Lux Review
February 1998
Review in Metal Hammer
METAL Hammer(Feb '98 issue.) Human Waste Project "E-Lux" Human Waste Project... The name suggests one thing, or to be exact, one kind of thing: take your pick from some hideous sewer-dwelling mutant, some minimal budget 'B' movie or some visiously unforgiving industrial grindcore outfit. As it turns out, LA's HWP are none of these, but the latest line in custom mangled metallic-pop-psychedelic hued angst from off the weirded out sidewalks of the city of pink sunsets. And this, their debut, is a bewitching Pandora'sbBox of volitile and unpredictable mood swings. Not as one-dimensionally channelled as their recent touring companions Tura Satana, HWP's brand of dark fairytales are way more off the wall, eclectic and generally tricky to pin down. If you're looking for some sort of reference point, HWP juggle metal, pop and trippy psychedelic influences pretty much as shaken and stirred up by fellow Los Angelinos Jane's Addiction, except with what sounds like a close relative of Cyndi Lauper deputising for Perry Farrel. You could say HWP vocalist/frontgirl Aimee Echo has a distinctive, if highly mannered, assortment of vocal 'personas'. Part Cyndi Lauper baby doll kookiness, part B-52's wackiness, part Tairrie B 'scream queen' psychosis - all these and more spring to mind at various points, in what is frequently an eccentric and busy equation.
Broadly speaking, the songs on 'E-Lux' seem to divide themselves into two distinct strands: the manically wound-up headspins of tracks like 'Disease', 'Drugstore' and 'Powerstrip', and on the other hand the dreamier, more dislocated haziness exhibited to best effect on the likes of 'Shine', 'Electra' and 'One Night In Spain'. On the basis of HWP's principal attractions lies in the fact that they havn't settled for the same slavish reworking of already overworked and overfamiliar formulas. 'E-Lux' reshuffles the standard angry/feisty-babe-plus-rock-band deck of cards into something a little spikier, quirkier and generally further on than the rank-and-file stereo type, with it's track listing presented as a succession of edgy sugar and spikes psycho dramas in miniature.
Whether HWP blow up ballistic or just turn out to be an 'alternative' version of, say, Garbage, or even a skilfully concealed Siouxie And The Banshees tribute band remains to be seen. However, if the response on the recent Tura Satana dates is anything to go by, then HWP have already gone some way towards identifying their market.(7)
Grahame Bent.
Aimee Echo explains it all ...
Where does the name Human Waste Project come from?
There's this book called 'The Twelth Planet' by Zacchariah Sitchin and it explains that God was an alien and how we were created as a race of slaves from DNA from a couple of star systems including the Pleiades. Then we were abandoned when this one planet went out of the earth's orbit, and that's how the name Human Waste Project makes sense to me. I've got seven stars of the Pleiades tatooed on my wrist because I firmly believe that's where my DNA comes from. Call me mad or whatever, i'm an alien.
Describe your sound...
It's real hard to pin down because we've got so many different influences going on, like love, God, pain, cigarettes, coffee, the stars, witchcraft, Enya, Slayer, Portishead, Janes Addiction, Siouxsie and the Banshees, PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, friendship, family, lack of friendship, lack of family ... I could go on for days. We're pretty moody and schizophrenic and have short attention spans, so the record sounds pretty moody and schizophrenic with a short attention span!
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Human Waste Project
E-Lux Review
February 1998
Review in Metal HammerJanus Stark / Human Waste Project / Jumping Landmines Camden Barfly, London.
Easily the most disorientating aspect of tonight is the realisation that Jumping Landmines re not fronted by Billy Bragg in tarten surfer shorts, but are in fact a noisy punk rock three-piece who seem to be enjoying themselves immensly, despite the fact that only about ten people are listening. Still, if their purpose was to make ears ring with a violent intensity then they succeeded. Bastards.
Human Waste Project arrive and Aimee Echo looks superb, venting her anger into the microphone with a large dollop of relish. Comparisons to Courtney/Tairrie/Gwen may be close visually, but she stalks the stage with a raw cynicism more associated with someone like Polly Harvey. The band tear through the new single 'Powerstrip' beating up Aimee's vocal line and shearing it of it's nasty habit of sounding like Alanis Morissette. 'Electra' and 'One Night In Spain' are deceptivly intense songs that drift into Sneaker Pimps/Morcheeba territory, offering interesting new dimensions of a band whose blitzkrieg sound seems inevitably to be destined for higher things.
This is the predicament facing Janus Stark toninght. Following such a powerful act causes them problems that are more acutely apparent on a night when they themselves aren't firing on all cylinders. Gizz, Shop and Pinch shoot off strong enough material in the shape of 'Floyd' and 'Catholic' to a fairly receptive audience. They even have the required amount of stage presence. It's just that the atmosphere seems a little flat and the delivery much too forced to make any real impact, particularly as they're also fighting the expectations of people who have come to see 'that guitarist from the Prodigy'. The iminent release of their as yet untitled album should set things straight, but tonight the were outshone by a band bathing in their own starlight. (7/10)
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Human Waste Project
Feature
January 3rd 1998
Feature in Kerrang!
KERRANG! The Ones To Watch
ISSUE 680, January 2nd, 1998
DESTINATION EVERYWHERE
THE DEAL: Psycho-sexual LA based new-metal crew, peddling out revved-up, kooky tunes with titles like "Exit Wound" and "Disease". Think Korn meets Janes Addiction meets Bauhaus, and you're half way there. Or, gentelmen readers could just think about Aimee Echo for a while, if they preferred..
THE LINE-UP: Megastar-in-the-making Aimee Echo on vocals, dreadlocked bassist Jeff Schartoff, bleached-blond drummer Scott Ellis, and ever smiling gutarist Mike Tempesta. They formed four years ago in the Huntington Beach area of Los Angeles.
THE VIBE: Numerous reports of being "better that the headliners" after their first tour of the UK supporting Tura Satana, and a legion of new fans won over on the bands Christmas tour of the UK with Coal Chamber. Apparently all set for a "big push" from their UK record label (Polydor), and already a firm fixture in the pages of Kerrang!, the future is brighter than a firefly after a night soaked in kerosene.
OUT NOW: Debut single "Powerstrip", which was released early in December. A good start, but if you heard it and you weren't too keen, console yourself with the news that it is not the best track on the album...
OUT NEXT: The band's darkly psychadelic debut album "E-lux", gets a UK release in Febuary 9.
(**now it looks more likely that it will be released in late Feb, FD)DESTINED TO BE: This year's sexiest, coolest and noisiest new metal messiahs
sent to us by Fiona Daly
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