Total unfettered freedom and maximum sonic assault propels LA psych veterans The Icarus Line, who manage to invoke the anarchic spirits of Funkadelic, The Gun Club, Velvet Underground, Sun Ra, early Stooges, Albert Ayler, Charley Patton and Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds at their rowdiest in their elemental maelstrom.
Recorded in leader Joe Cardamone’s Burbank studio to follow 2014’s Slave Vows and Avowed Slavery double-header, the band focus on capturing moments rather than arranging songs, interspersing tracks with tone poems including Millenial Prayer, which recalls George Clinton’s slowed-down sermons on Funkadelic’s early albums, and outsider legend Joe Coleman’s title track.
Sparks fly on screaming feedback siren dizzbusters such as Incinerator Blue, Bad Seeds violinist Warren Ellis carves a dark drone into Bedlam Blue, while Mirror recalls his old band Grinderman with its chain-gang cacophony.
The free jazz-syphoning Sleep Now is the perfect post-apocalyptic finale after such a cataclysmic, soul-rinsing bombardment.
