Beguiling vocals and dense distortion defined the sound of Icer, whose only release, Astrid Calls, was the first by Isolation.
The band packed out the Water Rats for their debut gig, and followed that up with regular London performances; all assured power, detachment, doubts. Labels were phoning up daily looking for demos, asking about gigs.
Astrid Calls
Despite a couple of one-off 7-inch single offers, Icer decided to make a 4-track CD with Isolation. Title track Astrid Calls; ragged distortion and melody - all feedbacked, sampled, compressed. Backing it was clean and perfect pop song Drop Everything, which showed the melancholy vocals of singer Katharine to good effect and was popular on Brighton's Surf FM radio station.
Hylozoid, who has worked with Monkey Mafia and former Lo-Fidelity Allstars singer The Wrekked Train among others, provided a remix. Old bandmate Tarl came up with something altogether more ambient to complete the four tracks.
On release it was made single of the month in Record Collector, which called it the Radio 1 single of the week that never was. Airplay and positive feedback in Brighton and France and UK student stations.
Icer #2
Around this time Russell and Katharine left, and remaining members David and Ben teamed up with singer Ani, and later Tarl, in a new line up. New songs moved even more towards sample-based sounds and live they were as powerful as ever; Ani's chiming vocals over cracked and cranked guitar loops.
In the end though, things were pulling in too many directions and Icer played their final gig at the Pressure Point in Brighton in 1999.
David is now part of RomaKid, and Katharine worked on the RomaKid album released in 2008 on Tarl's Distant Noise Records. She also povided vocals to Tarl's Innerise project. Russell provided a remix for RomaKid's Centre And Periphery under the name Akkadian.