Icarus

The high energy laptop duo of Sam Britton and Ollie Bown make up the wildly eclectic group Icarus. With this album they conjure a war of sounds, consisting of electric and acoustic elements that seem to be constantly colliding against one another. The flowing, or more like flogging, manner of the compositions are choppy and are seemingly reversing in direction the majority of time, giving it a feel of hyperactive, nervous classical music. Rampaging over the base of swarming tones are very aggressive beats that attack in a wild but mellow way. There are also moments of acoustic simplicity but short lived as the drill & bass battery disrespectfully forces its way back into the fray again. Unexpected forays into strange transitions of musique concrete and free jazz is done quite often and in a very messy fashion, but to positive effect. Sensor bending, squawking and conflicting in squabble, this is melodi-break-core, speed rhythm listening.