Audio Adrenaline: Audio Adrenaline (1992)

 Tracks:

1. One Step Hyper
2. What You Need
3. Who Do You Love
4. PDA
5. The Most Excellent Way
6. J.E.S.U.S. Is Right
7. Revolution
8. Audio World
9. DC-10
10. My God
11. Life 

Audio Adrenaline made their break the musical backwash of the early '90s.  When four young men from Kentucky Christian College got together to make fun party music and rock out a little, dance music and hip-hop were the major forces moving in music.  Metal had let most of its hair fall out, Rock was in hibernation, and Rap was getting foul and violent.  The New Kids on the Block weren't so new anymore.  Grunge was a word used to describe the scum that gathered on the bottom of garbage cans, and Seattle was still known mostly for the Space Needle and computers.  So when the four young gentlemen started a band called A-180, they decided to make dance music and rap a little.  Then a little later they got a guitar and started playing louder stuff, and Audio A began its journey proper.

So it's no surprise that Audio Adrenaline sounds like a band that hadn't quite figured out how to be a band yet.  They had the big front man in Mark Stuart, who possessed a raw, frat-rocky voice that could coo gruffly when the mood shifted down, or bust a rhyme with authority when the house needed rocking.  They had the funky guitar player in Barry Blair, and the hyper bass player in Will McGinniss.  And Bob Herdman did everything from program a synth to play guitar and even banged the drum kit, although you would hardly notice it on this record.   That's because three other people played drums on it.

It's the digital programming and mixing that makes the album party-friendly, but it also puts the group in a weird position:  Are they party guys with lots of energy and a beat for everything, or are they an actual four-piece rock machine ready to take on the world?  It depends on what song you're listening to.  If it's the opening "One Step Hyper," they rock out with heavy beats and samples, and Mark sings a half-rap, half-rock workout that actually rhymes "hyper" with "viper" (I guess "Stryper" was already taken?).  If it's the mellow acoustic "Who Do You Love" it's smooth and silky with a bit of funk.  If it's "PDA" (That stands for Public Display of Affection, and bible colleges like KCC try to put a lid on such dangerous behavior), it's dance-friendly grooves with call-and-response vocals.  So far, the party is off the hook, Homes!

But then things get weirder.  "J.E.S.U.S. is Right" takes us to an island singalong with acoustic guitars, clapping, and rustic choirs chanting the title.  Then they have a few more dance numbers before bringing out the rock guns with "DC-10," a holdover from the A-180 days, and then do speed metal with "My God," an awesome song that had headbanging, guitar crunching, and McGinniss taking center stage on the break with a silly spoken interlude.  It was a very cool song in its time, and I remember our dorm room at Lincoln Christian College rocking to that one back in '92.

So they ended up being a party band on this one after all.  But the songwriting roots are there: Stuart, Herdman & Co. actually come up with some decent hooks in the midst of all the machinery.  It wouldn't be until the second album that they finally found their feet and could say, "We're A Band."  Still, the fun quotient would never top the level of this debut record, and really, who can dis that?