Ice Cream in The 8 Playlist: vanilla-flavoured cyanide pill sounds

We got in touch with Ice Cream, the Canadian duo of interchangeably alienated and cut-loose femme vocals woth dark, tense sonic atmospheres that pump rock vibes in the bloodstream of synthpop.

 

Carlyn Bezic and Amanda Crist incarnate Ice Cream, a project which naturally emerged out of jamming sessions and their own particular brand of counterpoint/collage collaborations which were organically grown – like avocados to your toast – into 2016’s heart-stopping Love, Ice Cream, under Bad Actors Inc., exuding a delicious fragrance of dimly lit warmth, buzzed, long nights and sweat.

 

Since then, the girls have released a few tracks on their Soundcloud, which caught us by surprise and got us hooked to their gritty lo-fi, new wave and electroclash-reminiscent sounds. It was very satisfying to discover a band digging these lately overlooked genres, which felt like just the kind of something that music has been lacking.

Ice Cream in The 8 Playlist: vanilla-flavoured cyanide pill sounds

 

Their influences make for quite a bracket spread throughout pop and experimental music. Whilst Carlyn loves Brian Eno, Liars and The Contortions, Amanda has a weakness on Whirlwind Heat, T Rex, Fleetwood Mac and Black Dice. No wave and noise rock intertwined with the punk and indie rock ethos, traversed by the warmth from psychedelic and glam rock ’n’ roll legends. Shapes and hues which are all easily felt on their debut album, a hearty track collection pulled off with surprisingly few key ingredients. A cute little Boss Dr. Rhythm drum machine, a Moog Rogue, a MicroKorg, a Gibson SG and a Fender Jaguar Bass with a tiny assortment of pedals, which they’ve admittedly acquired going for the cheap.

 

When it comes to performing duties, they’re known for exchanging places as they see fit for each track, exchanging vocal and percussion duties, with Amanda sticking to synths and Carlyn to guitars, which often results in a surprising chemistry, as their voices overlap or alternate their protagonism. This going around, taking different instruments and functions in a performance has also extended to their composition, with Carlyn occasionally delving into keyed instruments to break free from the comfort zone of strings.
Combining rock-’n’-rollish elements with electronic appears like a very intuitive – maybe obvious – step to take in musical evolution. But it also seems rather hard to pull off in the right measure, with the girls being an exceptional case. Perhaps it’s a defense mechanism within the hive mind of dance-punk, electroclash, new/no-wave and other such genres to remain out of the mainstream and preserve the delicate balance of elements that give it its luscious taste. A taste which is quite welcome in an age of preeminently EDM-y production values.

 

 

Listening to their latest tracks, we wondered whether their recent one-by-one soundcloud releases were an attempt to remain active to the eyes of the internet and overcome the difficulty of having a musical project and giving it the proper exposure in this day and age. And as it figures, it kinda does and kinda doesn’t:

 

“Carlyn: We wish it was a (marketing) strategy we used. We have a full album finished but no release date set for various reasons.”

 

“Amanda: … most artists wait longer than they want to to release something so that it coincides with an ideal press schedule and things like that. It’s commonplace to be totally over it by the time it’s released… which sucks. But it’s a small downside to making something and having people listen to it.”

 

Ice Cream in The 8 Playlist: vanilla-flavoured cyanide pill sounds
Ice Cream in The 8 Playlist: vanilla-flavoured cyanide pill sounds

 

So yeah, we’ll have to be patient (but optimistic, alas) about their upcoming albums. In the meantime, we’re more than happy to get distracted by their latest songs:

 

Who were you trying to call on ‘Dial Tone’? Is it connected to ‘My mind but me’ somehow?

 

“Actually, someone was trying to call us. It’s connected to MMBM in the sense that, in both songs, we are women who are unreachable, unknowable, closed to the world…”

 

Is it absent-mindedness of artistry? The distance that a woman’s gaze may shorten or extend indefinitely? Or the unbent will of the independent thinker? These subjects are all but strange to the band, who’s lyricism hasn’t gone unnoticed, ringing of themes like femininity, image, fantasy, desire and performance. An beautiful conceptual skeleton fit for its beautiful musical couture.

 

In their usual lackadaisical manner, the girls have composed a playlist that totally sticks with the imaginarium and conceptual thread we’ve discovered in their works. 8 songs for nights, sighs of every mood, belligerence and a very serious disregard for self-seriousness. Enjoy!

 

8 songs with “no particular theme”: