Press

The Loop
December 1999
By Sarah Chesterman

I saw her first suckas!  At her debut Railway gig, to be exact, where she and her cohorts - drummer Bina and go-go girl Kyira - blew away the plodding competition with their sexy aplomb.  Not that any contest was taking place; it just seemed that way when two admirers threw large amounts of money on stage as they played (honest).

And Flicker won hands down for grooviness..."Take a pill!" croons Andréa Hector in her crystalline warble, flashing her shiny white teeth and headstrong flippancy.  Yes, Hector is the "her" in question; Flicker is the act.  No aggression here (just lots of sarcasm).  In fact, the aggression is one of the things I love about Flicker, coming as it does from such a confection of perfection - who happens to sport tattoos and tasty space-age mini-dressed, write all her own music and manhandles a mean bass guitar.  OK, I'm biased - but so what?

Shades of Hector's former band Liquid Amber can be detected in the heavy groove influence.  "Liquid Amber was an important growth factor for me musically," Hector tells me, "And it ran its course.  I was no longer interested in having a guitar player; my drummer wouldn't think of not having one.  So we all parted company, and I went off to from Flicker on my own."  The electronic loops give Flicker's sound its techno, trip-out dimension.  "I've found my spark for the keyboards again," says Hector, "There was a time when I seemed only able to play pretty tunes on the piano - and I didn't want that, so I stopped playing completely.  Now I'm back to just making sounds with it, which is good."  Hector patched the keyboards through a bass synthesizer pedal to find some new sounds.  "I'm interested in continuing to fuse electronics with live instruments," she adds.  The CD in question - Flicker's just-released 4 song ep - chronicles tiny true tales of beauty vs. neurosis:  beating up a boy at age 11, calming the urge to beat up a girl as an adult, and reflecting upon prevalent high-school attitudes of so-called adults.  Many interwoven textures and layers delight throughout, adding complexity to the catchy, hip-shaking vibe.

Recommended house-cleaning tunes for domestic tyrants like myself. Ra!

Catch Hector and her capable accomplices at 9pm Sun. Dec. 19 at the Purple Onion.  Tickets can be purchased by calling 604.874.2634.  you can obtain a CD for $5.00 at the live show, or send a $6.00 money order to P.O. Box 30035 Parkgate P.O., N. Van, B.C. V7H 2Y8.