Icon of coil – Machines are us

Icon of Coil is a Norwegian electronic music band that started as an art concept and became a bona fide band with a fascinating, quite dark sound. We check out their 2004 album ‘Machines are us’.

In 1997 Andy LaPlegua established the project Icon Of Coil, which was primarily a concept built around a logo, graphic design and music. Soon after the inception, the music turned out to be the most important part of the concept and LaPlegua invited Sebastian Komor to work with him on the project as a live member. After just a couple of gigs and the release of IOC’s first single, Shallow Nation, Seb became a full-time member. In late spring of 2000 at a gig in Uddevalla, Sweden, Christian Lund joined the band as a live member and went on stage with Andy and Seb for the first time.

This album has some brilliant dance tracks and some beautiful more mellow tracks on it. Take Existance in progress is an amazingly dark, distorted and definitely danceable track and it makes me smile on the inside. It’s one of my favourite tracks on this album because of the different synths and vocal style as well as the lyrics. My other personal favourite on this album is Wire trip. Its funky start gave me goosebumps – moreover I just wanted to get up and dance my socks off! Pursuit kicks in straight away, cleverly building with the feel of a ranting madman’s secret paranoid delusions.

Then there’s the stunning charm of Sleep:less, one of the mellow titles on this release. You can chill out and be absorbed by the synths, lyrics and melody of this song. Faith:not important has a slower tempo than the other songs but is still relatively upbeat and satisfying. The chorus lyrics convey a dark message, but the upbeat melody is a fun contradiction.

There’s just one track on this album I’m not entirely sure about and that’s Release the frequency – afterwords. It’s a strange track and gets a little tedious even with added vocals, but it’s only a minor blip on the album.

Overall I’d definitely recommend ‘Machines are us’ to newcomers to the scene – and it’s a good’un for veterans too. Andy LaPlegua, Sebastian Komor and Christian Lund make a formidable team which makes for some fantastic listening.

‘Machines are us’ Track listing:

• Comment v2.0
• Remove- Replace
• Consumer
• Shelter
• Mono Overload!
• Existance In Progress
• Faith:Not Important
• Transfer Complete
• Dead Enough For Life
• WireTrip
• Android
• Sleep Less
• Persuit
• Release The Frequency – Afterwords