Reviewed by Paul J Zickler
Released: 1981 Experiments With Ice Experiments With Ice Genre: Synthwave Rating: 2 out of 5 Experiments With Ice. The band name is kind of dumb, honestly. What experiments can you do with ice? Ooh, I heated it, and it melted! There’s not much information about this band, but I did find photos of the original album front and back cover, both sides of the record, and the lyric insert. The lyrics are kind of dumb. You want examples? “I, have slept with the end / It’s coming here my friend / There’s nothing there to lend.” “Phantom / theatre theatre, / Your eyes on me / Perform.” “I can’t sleep tell the boys / The boys play violin / Dark light transform to white.” This is the music of someone who bought an ARP synthesizer and knew some people who could play other instruments. The songs involve a lot of repetition, an attempt to create some kind of sonic mood, some synthy sounds, and the aforementioned dumb lyrics. Some of the songs are over 5 minutes long. Not much happens. The production buries the vocals. Dare I say the music is kind of dumb? Another important missing piece is a sense of humor. One possible exception is Toy Joy, a herky-jerky number from the Devo school, which is actually kind of fun for a minute or so until the repetition becomes too hard to take. Red Bible also reminds me of the Spudboys, but what to make of “The red bible soon come / And fill in the black squares?” The brothers Casale and Mothersbaugh made the meaning of their mischievous self-invented (and/or Subgenius) slang pretty obvious. This stuff sounds like plain gibberish to me. No real highlights, but if you want a lowlight, there’s Hollywood. Liner notes reveal that its lyrics were “by Don Blanding as recited by Leo Carillo in the 1935 MGM Colortone musical ‘Starlight at the Coconut Grove.’” For their sake, I hope Messrs Blanding and Carillo never heard this excruciatingly dumb reinterpretation of their cinematic creation. Listen if you dare.
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