New-gen riot grrrls Hex are entering the scene with their first full-length LP, and they're doing it head first. Hex are comprised of three young women who met at Girls Rock Camp Toronto; at only 17 years old, their sound extends beyond what might be expected.
Title track "Miss Pristine" offers a running head start. With just a couple stripped-down guitar notes, Halina Katz's powerful vocals and close parallels to Courtney Love and Karen O, the trio is demanding to be taken seriously from the start.
Although the ten tracks often seem a little too similar, and Katz's enunciation could be clearer, Hex still showcase their talent through their composition. Several tracks play with time signatures, and often turn the usual song structure and predictable patterns on their head. Both "Oh Man" and "Look at the Sun" are trips down winding roads, with timings constantly being changed and the final destination often unclear.
The guitar riffs throughout the album are also clean, while still maintaining that garage-punk style. "Life" executes this near perfectly; the song starts clean, but then erupts into a full-bodied, '90s static chorus, only to return back to stripped down simplicity.
"She Feels It" — the final and most notable track — brings together all the examples of musical artistry that have been riddled throughout the entirety of the album. This track actually stops completely for about five seconds midway through, encouraging listeners to ask: wait, is it over? This song is confusing, interesting and noisy — a perfect grand finale.
Focusing solely on Hex's age and years of experience, this album is undoubtedly impressive. While the band is encouraged to offer more diversity on future projects, this album foreshadows a resurrection of the '90s riot grrrl scene within Toronto's current punk rock community.
(Independent)Title track "Miss Pristine" offers a running head start. With just a couple stripped-down guitar notes, Halina Katz's powerful vocals and close parallels to Courtney Love and Karen O, the trio is demanding to be taken seriously from the start.
Although the ten tracks often seem a little too similar, and Katz's enunciation could be clearer, Hex still showcase their talent through their composition. Several tracks play with time signatures, and often turn the usual song structure and predictable patterns on their head. Both "Oh Man" and "Look at the Sun" are trips down winding roads, with timings constantly being changed and the final destination often unclear.
The guitar riffs throughout the album are also clean, while still maintaining that garage-punk style. "Life" executes this near perfectly; the song starts clean, but then erupts into a full-bodied, '90s static chorus, only to return back to stripped down simplicity.
"She Feels It" — the final and most notable track — brings together all the examples of musical artistry that have been riddled throughout the entirety of the album. This track actually stops completely for about five seconds midway through, encouraging listeners to ask: wait, is it over? This song is confusing, interesting and noisy — a perfect grand finale.
Focusing solely on Hex's age and years of experience, this album is undoubtedly impressive. While the band is encouraged to offer more diversity on future projects, this album foreshadows a resurrection of the '90s riot grrrl scene within Toronto's current punk rock community.
