Artist: 33Hz
Album: 33Hz
Label: Outlook Music Co.
Tracks: 13
Length: 55:40
Review By: Jacob Gehman

I was dreaming. We were in a smoky pub and there was a buzz in the crowd. Smoke drifted lazily above our heads. There was anticipation in the air. The lights went dim, the crowd grew rowdier, and Devo took the stage. They were clad in nerdy costumes and they transported us back to 1985. All of a sudden, in the dream, Devo dropped their instruments and started dancing choreographed moves while singing like Justin Timberlake. Only they weren't Devo anymore. The crowd grew restless and two songs into the band's set, there were but a few people left in the pub. It was very sinister, and I awoke with a start.

Intent behind music is half the riddle to enjoying (or, for that matter, hating) an album. For instance, Demon Hunter's first CD was enjoyable when viewed as a mockery of the nu-metal scene. Unsurprisingly, once they became a serious project the music lost all novelty and started gathering dust. 33Hz plays like the band in my dream. They're a totally nerdy boyband. Vocally they sing with that slick, nauseating croon that all boybands successfully utilize. It's not too big of a stretch to envision any of the major boybands taking the material on this album and performing them with choreographed moves and swooning females.

But how serious could something like this possibly be? If the intent is that of parody or as some colossal joke on pop music this album falls into the same amusing territory as the Demon Hunter album. Unfortunately, if 33Hz is using mockery as its gimmick, they neglected to inform the rest of the world. The cover is a cool wavelength graphic that one might expect to grace the cover of a Nine Inch Nails album. A boyband mockery would realize that all good boyband album covers feature a picture of the band looking hot and ready to dance. If you open the CD booklet up there is finally a picture of the band, apparently posing in the stairwell of a building. They all look like nerds. If you saw their picture in Rolling Stone your first thought would be, "Whoa, a Devo cover band!"

Despite their nerdiness, 33Hz still does not come across as a joke. Nothing about the album implies that their CD is anything but a serious project. If they were indeed trying to mock pop music, wouldn't they make the joke at least somewhat obvious? Demon Hunter's lead singer wore a shirt with the word "gimmick" on it for a publicity photo. Yet 33Hz leaves no clues. There is just horrible music that reminds us why we turned off the radio in the first place.