Thanks to a tip from London post-punkers H. Grimace page, I’ve just discovered the London-based noise / post-punk 4-piece Ice Baths. The group, with already a debut 2-track single on Liverpool’s Edils Recordings, take their influence from some of my late 70’s/early 80’s favourites such as Swell Maps, Television Personalities, Devo, US Maple, and judging from their new single, their ‘crash of sounds’ seems absolutely intriguing and exciting.
A lo-fi angular, tense and jittery sound, blurring the lines between harmony and dissonance, melody and distortion, the guitars are piercing and scratchy, the drums obsessive and hypnotic, the bass lines throbbing throughout, the vocals detached; surely with reminiscent of the beautiful cacophony and minimalism of brothers Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtrack’s band, but I’d add also the abrasiveness of The Fall, the quirky pop flavours from New Zealand bands like The Terminals and the Clean and the immediacity and psych undertones of 60′ Nuggets-era garage-punk, “New Strappings Pt I” is challenging, sometimes disturbing, but highly electrifying and addictive, can’t wait to hear the whole album.
The Ice Baths‘ self-titled debut album is due out on May 11, 2018 via Blank Editions Label.
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