Iceage - New Brigade

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4...according to our Business Lady on Fri 02 Sep, 2011.

Iceage are a bunch of hip punk rock youngsters (average age 17) from Denmark who spend their time conjuring up new shapes and sounds from the remnants of '80s hardcore and post-punk scene. Clearly wise and inventive beyond their years, these young bovva boys spit out short, spiky melodic punk rock in the vein of The Clash and Siouxie And The Banshees. Primarily this is done with the traditional punk rock line-up of drums, guitar, bass and vocals but occasionally a synth makes an appearance and changes up the dynamic, especially on the slightly misleading post punk effort entitled 'Intro'. Elsewhere things are fairly straightforward with rolling toms and sharp guitars reinventing the early sound of The Cure and Gang Of Four simultaneously. The more I listen to this the more I like so I'm gonna conclude by saying that it's a definite grower and a truly inspired bit of business from the yooth! If you loved 80's punk rock and its many evolutionary strands then you'll be impressed by this reinterpretation of classic sounds.

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Iceage are teenagers, presently 18 or 19 years of age, and as with most people that age, it doesn't do any good to cite influences. Rather, Iceage mixes punk, post-punk, Goth and hardcore as if they invented it, and does such an excellent job of blending these tropes with the pent-up energy and frustration of the just-post-pubescent years of young mens' lives, that they might as well have.

New Brigade is Iceage's debut album released on Escho Records of Denmark and previously available as a Limited and now OOP pressing on the undefeatable DAIS records); 24 minutes of anthemic stress, of tension undiluted by worldly wisdom or amassed experience. Following a seven-inch single (recorded by Peter Peter, of the Sods and Sort Sol) and compilation track, New Brigade displays a confidence that substitutes worldly experience for the thrills of discovery, of knowing that it is possible to forge your own path in light of adults, the establishment, and prevailing wisdom telling you to do otherwise. In this tradition, New Brigade's twelve songs rush past, long enough to hit you in the chest and short enough to make you wonder what happened. YouTube shows Iceage's live shows to be frenetic, sometimes violent affairs with very little compromise in the way of sound or concept. You may get pushed around. Deal with it. This is a punk record from a punk band that plays punk shows. American audiences will get their first chance to see them play this summer, once they finish their current year of high school.

There likely will not be a record of this type so singular and stunning until Iceage makes another one.

Early praise for New Brigade:

Vice Magazine: Record of the Month, May

“one of the best punk rock records released in years” – Noel Gardner, The Quietus

“The songs on New Brigade are played with the same high-octane energy that’s heard on earlier albums from modern punk leaders F**ked Up and No Age, and like them, Iceage have the makings of greatness.’” – Ric Leichtung, Altered Zones

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