Ice - 2005 - Ice Man

Ice

2005

Ice Man

01. Ice Man
02. Whisper Her Name
03. Anniversary (Of Love)
04. So Many Times
05. Walk On The Water
06. Time’s Fading Fast
07. Day Tripper
08. Ice Man
09. Wide Blue Yonder Boy
10. Open The Door To Your Heart
11. Like A Woman
12. Skyline
13.Wait
14. Monday
15. Tell Me
16. Silver Lady
17. Burning, Burning
18. Two Hearts
19. Little Girl In Wonderland

Backing Vocals – Linda Hoyle (tracks: 7 to 10)
Bass Guitar – Mo Foster (tracks: 7 to 10)
Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals – John Carter
Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar – Kris Johnson (tracks: 11 to 16)
Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar – Steve Turner
Organ [Hammond], Piano – Lynton Naiff
Vocals – Glyn James

This CD compilation represents the total recorded output of the cult 60s rock group ICE.
Tracks 7 to 19 are labelled as bonus tracks, despite the absence of a release that omits them.

In 1967 and 1968, Ice were a much–touted but slightly mysterious recording band, constantly on the radio (including the famous John Peel show with Jimi Hendrix and Traffic), but seldom seen on television and never live.

‘Walk On the Water’ was the controversial track (disguised as ‘Walk Under Water’ for Radio One purposes) that was intended to be their second single and was eventually sidelined in favour of ‘Ice Man’.

RECORD COLLECTOR lists their two singles ‘Anniversary (Of Love)’ from 1967 and ‘Ice Man’ from 1968 in their Rare Record Guide and apart from the singles and their ‘b’ sides all of the tracks featured on this CD have never before been released.

Lynton Naiff, Grant Serpell, Mo Foster and Linda Hoyle all later joined up as AFFINITY but that as they say is another story

This CD represents the group’s entire recorded output of the cult 60’s rock group ICE.

I was pleasantly surprised to see such an extensive offering of tunes from the band which recorded the oft-comped "Ice Man," available here in both studio and live form. The "blued eyed soul" approach, to me, always produced the best stylings of the beat/freakbeat/mod era. This approach is evident in several places here, for example, their cover of Darrell Banks "Open the Door to Your Heart" (incorrectly classified by the BBC announcer as "an original."). But, how can 13 of 19 tracks on any full-length CD be BONUS tracks? Most of these songs are one-off live recordings or demos, and the quality of what is laid down here is much too good for these songs not to have had full studio treatment. 

This 19 song disc leads with those four songs, including the title track; sprinkled with swirling organ bursts, clever guitar figures, and choir-inspired vocal harmonies, the style exemplifies the psychedelic pop of the period. The compilation adds an unissued single: The driving R&B number "Walk On Water" contrasts with the Zombies-style ballad "Time's Fading Fast."

The second half of the disc showcases the songwriting collaboration between session guitarist Kris Johnson and lyricist/manager Chris Simpson. Unlike the full-band recordings, these demos find singer Glyn James primarily accompanied by guitar, bass, and backing vocals. This allows James to project a more reflective mood on songs that foreshadow the singer-songwriter era.

Ice Man closes with three Simpson-Johnson compositions performed at Sussex University by Russell's Clump, a group connected to the Ice family tree. Glyn James' liner notes give context to this delightfully obscure bit of British music.

Ice - 1979 - Saga Of The Ice King

Ice

1979

Saga Of The Ice King

01. Early Days 3:09
02. The Ice King 3:18
03. Asgard 6:25
04. The Bridge 3:13
05. The Feast 2:59
06. Dawn / The Battle 5:00
07. Aftermath 0:55
08. Journey Into Exile 2:19
09. Reprise 2:41

Guitars – Andy Radek
Guitars – Paul Watts
Bass Guitar – Colin Richardson
Drums, Percussion – Steve Sheldon
Voice – Mick Rutherford

This British group is probably unknown to many, but it had a great live activity around the Staffordshire area back in late-70's.It was formed in early 1978 by five out of the six members of the disbanded act Willow, these were guitarists Andy Radek and Paul Watts, bassist Colin Richardson, drummer Steve Sheldon and singer/guitarist Mick Rutherford. After several gigs and press references Ice moved on to record their debut album ''Saga of the ice king'', inspired by the Ymir figure of the Icelandic mythology. It was recorded at the Curbough Sound Studios in Linchfield between October 78' and February 79' and it was released privately in 1979.A few guests appear on horns, cello and violin, while strings were provided by the Staffordshire Youth Orchestra.

''Saga of the ice king'' is a decent Psychedelic Rock album, pretty much outdated during the time of its release, but the basic reason of its obscurity was that the efforts of the group were actually buried by an unacceptable production and a bad sound quality. Ice played an emphatic Psychedelic Rock with progressive tendencies and plenty of harder overtones akin to mid-70's RUSH, while the album contains also some evident rural influences. This work is characterized by the nice collaboration between the guitarists, offering psychedelic textures with background solos and folky, acoustic soundscapes, leading eventually to a mass of changing climates, from hypnotic and pastoral lines to Hard Rock-oriented material with sharp electric themes. Sometimes the music tends to be very simplistic and rather uninspired, while the vocals could have sounded a lot better if they were not buried by the awful mix. Tracks are quite short with guitars in the forefront and lots of shifting tempos, but the flexibility of the album is almost zero.

Ice kept playing until 1982 with new drummer Paul Reeves. Rutherford went on to form Dickens, a short-lived Psych/Blues Rock band, and since mid-90's he has been performing with his own combo, the Mick Rutherford Band. Bassist Colin Richardson sadly passed away in 2006.

For fans of early RUSH and the likes, be aware of the questionable quality of the recordings. If you can get past that, Really enjoyable album that gets a couple of spins a year.

Ice - 1980 - Opus I

Ice

1980

Opus I

01. Bad News For The Dolphin
02. To A Fair Young Lady
03. Happy And Free
04. Willie The Pincher
05. Wintertime
06. Intro
07. The Big Sleep
08. Passagaglia
09. Choires Of Bright Beauties
10. Preludium No 1

Hubert Benz (bass, vocals)
Heinz Gerber (guitar, vocals)
Alexander Russ (drums)

ICE is a German Progressive rock trio (Bass-vocals, guitar & drums) that plays a simple and melodic, occasionally bluesy music with great emphasis or somewhat close to PINK FLOYD. Reissued by the Garden Of Delights label, "Opus One" (1980) is a particularly rare album, displaying a music very much influenced by the Seventies.

This CD is by one of the more pedestrian rock groups that seem strangely prevalent on the Garden of Delights label. While Ice doesn’t have the overt amateur tendencies that many of the so-called underground rock groups we’ll be getting to have, and they do have some progressive touches, they still lack compositional prowess enough to create a consistently gripping album. Their sound comes off as close to late 70s Scorpions, late Hoelderlin, Novalis, early 80s Grobschnitt, and other borderline symphonic / conventional rock groups. Their strengths lie in the melodic prowess of guitarist Heinz Gerber, who gives the otherwise mediocre music a dose of Camel or Kerrs Pink. His solos lift to average an album that would have been pretty bad without them.