POP MUSIC REVIEW : EMF Goes Beyond the Hype

It’s not fair. Hip-hop cultural crossover sticks Americans with bland Vanilla Ice, while the British get to have the flavorful rainbow sherbet of such vibrant new bands as EMF, which made its Los Angeles debut Sunday at the Whisky.

EMF is hardly the be-all and end-all of the hip-hop/funk/punk movement forged in Britain’s pop pressure cooker--not when there’s the likes of Jesus Jones around, not to mention the Manchester contingent that started the whole thing. And the Sex Pistols/New Kids hype surrounding EMF is just that, though the young quintet does have the fresh-faced quality of the latter and the energy, if not the anarchic rush, of the former.

On Sunday the quintet showed the depth of the movement--a pleasant surprise considering that the buzz it had built up here was based pretty much just on one great single, “Unbelievable.” (The debut album won’t be out until May.)

Singer James Atkin is an ungratingly brash presence, while guitarist and musical architect Ian Dench provides some innovative twists to the beat-heavy sonic assault: acid-house meets acid-rock (an updated encore of Cream’s “Strange Brew”), with some ‘70s soul colorations thrown in.

And the band is a tight ensemble, if too reliant on technology to keep the beat lock-step steady and to provide extra textures--keyboardist Derry Brownson’s constant battering of his instrument seemed mostly for visual effect, with most keyboard sounds apparently prerecorded. But that’s a small complaint considering the potential shown here, not just for this one band, but for its whole scene.

Promising Los Angeles trio Rex Mundi, a spinoff from the worthy Shiva Burlesque, opened the show, offering a re-exploration of punk attitudes for the Cure generation.