"BASS! How low can you go?"… Ok, that was a pretty lame excuse to slip in that Public Enemy reference. And if you’ve ever listened to Swedish disco-drone septet IKONS, you’re probably wondering ‘how on earth do Public Ememy compare to this band?’ Well the truth is they don’t. Far from it in fact. But however, the reason why I felt the perhaps unnecessary need to quote ‘Bring the Noise’ is that this self titled debut record is so driven by bass that 10 tracks and 40 minutes after the first beat on opening track 'Slow Light', one comes to the conclusion that 'Ikons' is attention grabbingly wonderful.
What instantly drew my attention to IKONS before id even listened to the album, was the unique line up of the band, spanning from 6 musicians and visual artist Patrik Johansson. It was fascinating to hear how their sound would pan out during that first listen of the 8 minute instrumental opening track, that features a through bass coupled with Torbjörn Johansson’s drenching synths which will turn out to compliment each other terrifically 9 tracks later.
Despite lyrics being provided by two of the band members, Ikons is largely instrumental. The few tracks that do include vocals though are very sparsely sung/spoken. ‘Afrika’ vocally is merely a repetition of the line "Hurry On Sundown" which give an almost subliminal message occurrence. The track directly after again includes very sparse, almost mumbling like vocals but that doesn’t really matter as its more for effect. Again the bass guitar dominates the track and here is also where we begin to hear the awesome guitar riffs that gradually develop during the albums progression.
We stumble across the calming influence of ‘Domine’ midway through the LP which breaks it down nicely, familiar with Sonic Youth style interludes. ‘Guns’ is a personal highlight as it adds a fuzzy instrumental riff and the synth adds to the tracks atmosphere. Similar can be said about ‘The Hawk’ in the sense that it sounds like another extremely danceable noise rock piece.
Ikons does have the more vocally listener friendly tracks as well. ‘Imperiet’ for some reason wouldn’t sound out of place at an indie disco club night. Think Kasabian, except it sounds ten times better. And penultimate song ‘Bye’ (which is essentially the last track as ‘Post’ is basically a reprise of ‘Slow Light’) is a fuzzed up shoegazey number where the vocals are drowned out beautifully by the guitars and drums, but strangely stand out due to the fact that continuous vocals are such a rarity on this release.
Ikons is brilliant in that it brings up a wide range of sounds, yet doesn’t sound like its forced to please everybody. It’s a record that would almost sound just as good in outer space as it would in late 1960’s Germany (Krautrock). Just to top it off the reprise of 'Slow Light' (Post) literally rounds off the album, like you’ve been on a journey through orbit.
I look forward to seeing how the IKONS story unfolds in a live capacity as the visuals are meant to be stunning, and you can understand how a band like Spiritualized chose them to open on their Scandinavian tour last year. Once again, they prove that repetition is the key, largely thanks to bass player Eyal Schachar. I salute you sir!
By Freddy Rothman
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