If I Had a Hi-Fi
100 mph

Emerging from the concrete blandness of Southampton University (their words, not mine), If I Had a Hi-Fi are a rock band who have managed to record an interesting debut demo in an abandoned residence with a subsidence problem.

The first impression of the band comes from ‘100 mph’, a sub-two-minute rocker with a pacey verse and chorus that is a little in need of a big hook to accompany the confident melody.

The next song, ‘At the Last Minute’, is one to be skipped, plunging into the realms of the soul-revealing emotional ballad but getting mired in the sticky sink-hole of shoe-gazing pointlessness. However, arriving to save the record, ‘Meet Again’ mixes the emotional side of the band with a chugging guitar and comes to life in an inspired chorus. Creative guitars start appearing all over the place and the bass starts pilfering from the clever-pot with some tidy runs too.

I personally could have gone the rest of my life without hearing the second track, but ‘100 mph’ is much better and ‘Meet Again’ is in another league entirely.

If I Had A Hifi

Written by Fenton on 29th December 2005

Steve Fenton writes in our music, words, and culture categories. He was Editor in Chief for The Mag and covered live music for DV8 Magazine and Spill Magazine. He was often found in venues throughout the UK alongside ace-photographer, Mark Holloway. Steve is also a technical writer and programmer and writes gothic fiction. Steve studied Psychology at OSC, and Anarchy in the UK: A History of Punk from 1976-1978 at the University of Reading.