Tracklist:1. Embrace The Ground
2. Just Hate
3. Wreckage
4. Barbed-Wire God
5. Lidless Eyes
6. Gravel
7. Spasm
8. No. 74
9. Fade
Unreleased Tracklist:
1. All Cats Are Grey
2. The Anal Staircase
3. A:Stfunoya
Year: 2005
With a name like Acid Ice Flows, one can't help but be curious as to what the music sounds like, or maybe perhaps what goes on in the artists head. AIF is, according to the liner notes of Utumno, the combined creative efforts of Adam and Red. Although I own the album, AIF has recently put out Utumno and 3 unreleased tracks out on last.fm for free download. The tracks you will (hopefully) be downloading for the full-length are burned in 320 kb, and both are in .rar, so it will be easier for you to download all at once. Now, on to the music. I must admit I love their name (Acid Ice Flows just sounds so bad ass), I wondered what exactly Utumno meant. I assumed for a long time that it was just a made up word. Turns out, Utumno is a place in Middle-Earth. OK, whatever floats their boat. But their music is top notch, particuarly for being done for no profit in their spare time. Don't make the mistake of downloading this and expecting some sort of extreme dance music, because this ain't it. With the exception of Wreckage and maybe A:Stfunoya, nothing here is really too fit for the dancefloor. This is grade-a dark electro. The vocalist usually sounds like a man gargling a vocoder, and although that sounds really silly, it actually manages to sound really creepy. The synths accentuate the sound well, and the overall mood is extremely dark. However, I think Utumno really picks up after Barbed-Wire God, although Wreckage is probably my favorite track. The songs after Lidless Eyes are much less childy aggressive in their lyrics, and the synths are generally more creative.
The unreleased tracks are a (good) cover of The Cure's All Cats Are Grey, a (good) cover of Coil's The Anal Staircase (dedicated to the late great Johnny Balance), and the (good) AIF original A:Stfunoya. All of these songs are worth downloading as well, and are on par with Utumno.
Grade: 9/10
1 comment:
I am terrible with any sort of public relations, so it comes as no surprise that I stumbled upon this review probably many many years after it was posted. Just wanted to drop a note a say thank you for the nice review and I'm glad you enjoyed Utumno and some of the other tracks.
- Adam L of Acid Ice Flows
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