Icy Demons - Fight Back
(Cloud)
While this album probably won't be included in my top 3 of '04, this one gets my vote for best album art of the year. A twisted melange of one-eyed monsters, flying pencils and oysters emitting ghostly cat spirits, Fight Back looks like a Ren and Stimpy nightmare after going to bed with a stack of Skin Graft comic books. This assortment of cartoon faces somehow encapsulates the many characters at play on Fight Back. With what seems like a thoroughly communistic approach to music making—my guess is that all the cast of characters had an equal crack at the creative process.
You couldn't count Icy Demons' influences on four hands, and I would guess you won't find many at the local HMV. Instrumentally, Fight Back is a quirky, spare affair, matching their hometown of Chicago's tradition of jazzy, posty art-rock. A consistent sophisticated mellowness runs through the record, which manages a measure of cohesion, despite the variety of instruments, including everything from marimba, piano, reeds, keys and spoons. Instruments are coaxed just so, and timing is pretty incredible on most tracks—we are dealing with well-seasoned professionals here, folks.
On the second half of the record, Icy Demons veer a bit from the post-rockian path, take a few more chances with good results. The twelfth track is a thumping wonder of rattling percussion, burping keys and a collection of strange sounds bouncing around. I'll have more of that on the next release, please.
Fight Back is a lot of fun, can be played at any occasion, and contains more depth than might appear at first. It is a lovable, cuddly collection of songs, and just as easy to listen to as Chip & Dale was to watch when you were ten.
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