From Bob Bannister Sent Wed, Jan 6th 1999, 23:13
From Bob Bannister Sent Wed, Jan 6th 1999, 23:13
>>idm related:icu "chotto matte a moment" ...this is some f**ked up indie
style wierdness here.Anyone else have any comments about this release?
ICU - Chotto Matte a Moment! LP/CD (K klp85, 1998)
ICU are a trio from Olympia, WA, a musical town but one best known for
lunchbox indiepop.
They basically do a live electronic thing with Aaron Hartman always on
upright bass, Kinto Oiwa alternating between knob-twiddling, turntable
manipulation and a little Ash Ra-styled guitar and Michiko Swiggs on a
variety of keyboard and electronic activity.
They had an earlier 7" ("Despite the Smell of Colors" N.E.W. Recordings/K
split release in '97) that was rather abstract (less groove, more
chopped-up and noisy) compared to the live shows I've seen and the material
on this CD.
The pieces are often structured in a very song-like way with the "vocals"
provided via turntable snippets that are dropped in at the right spots -
sometimes the results of this are a little "wackier" than I care for.
The first couple of tracks are pretty uptempo but then it settles into a
more minimal/experimental mid-tempo stride for most of the rest. The
upright bass gives it a little of that Bristol feel but nothing overtly
similar.
Kinto's turntable skills are technically striking but I think he uses only
one and doesn't really use or mix records to create continuous rhythm
tracks, most of which are provided by programmed patterns on a drum
machine.
As a result, live, the music doesn't breathe quite the way it could - if
the players started that quaint rock activity known as jamming or the
audience were really dancing, the drum machine would still click off at the
54th second of the 6th minute no matter what else was happening. But
they're not trying to be a dance band per se (or improvisers) and I've
never heard anyone complain that their shows aren't good - they "move"
mostly in underground rock circles to my knowledge.
They don't sound like Add N to X but if you like that band, you'll probably
like ICU.
There is, by the way, a (terrible, if memory serves) rock band from New
York called I.C.U. (for Intensive Care Unit) that have threatened the usual
legal action about the name similarity - don't know what these guys plan to
do about it.
Bob Bannister