Mahi Mahi - He No Wa
(Corleone)
Two men of artificial nomenclature, armed only with electronics and drums, set out from Providence on a mission to shake booties and modernize, if only slightly, the not entirely gone or forgotten genre of synth rock. V. Von Ricci and Sir VZO, otherwise known as Mahi Mahi, rewind rock a decade or so, adding just enough post-industrial angst and malaise in order to escape accusations of rehashing the past. Their music isn't complicated; rock in form, electronic in nature, along with acoustic drums which either only make fleeting appearances, or which are processed and regurgitated to such a degree as to render them cold, digital entities. He No Wa seems uninterested in being a retro retread, which is thankful, but Mahi Mahi don't distance themselves far enough from the cliches of years gone by and the (by now) familiar and hackneyed sounds of their instruments.
Seeming only to utilize their equipment's most obvious presets, Mahi Mahi's calculated rock music might be easier to swallow were it not rife with such lamentable sounds as the synthesized whistle, the truncated symphony hit, and the false imitations of acoustic instruments that are best left behind. Ricci's warped, effected vocals get twisted into new forms, and, in the end, may be Mahi Mahi's best weapon, as it's in the vocals that the duo may explore their most inventive ground. The cheesy sounds of the music, however, tend to win out, and the song construction, while not completely stagnant, doesn't do enough to save the album, either. Perhaps more inclusion of live, acoustic drums would intensify the music somewhat, a little dash of human imperfection in the mix of artificial intelligence, but Sir VZO's kit surely isn't the catalyst it could be. Perhaps the successor to He No Wa will find the duo in more commanding form, but, on this debut, Mahi Mahi fall more than a bit short of musical paradise.
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