Stevenson Sedgwick (The Phantom Limbs, Factory Of Angst) and Skot B. (Anal Kitties, The Phantom Limbs) formed Black Ice in 1999. Black Ice concentrated on making music with acoustic instruments, samples, and found sounds that they tweaked and twisted through a myriad of studio effects. Their early music was primarily instrumental and was often used in art performances in and around the SF Bay Area at places like Cell Space in San Francisco and Mungasoland in Oakland.
2001 saw the inclusion of the Black Ice track Departure on the "Charm" motion picture soundtrack (5 rue christine). 2001 also saw the addition of Miss Kel (Sister Mary Shoelace) on vocals. The band, now a three piece, set to work on a four song demo.
Aside from the haunting vocals of Ms. Correll, the Ice used a wide range of conventional and unconventional instruments on the demo including: violins, piano, piano wire, wine glasses, a broken organ, samplers, synthesizers (broken and unbroken), water faucets, an assortment of drums, percussion, guitars and bass.
In 2002, Black Ice enlisted the aid of Mister Brown The Freaks, Sister Mary Shoelace and Melanie X Teeth, Unicorn Stickers for live performances. Currently Black Ice balances its time between the stage and the studio.
Their debut record, A 10" EP on Atakra Records, has been released to critical acclaim. Black Ice has since made several compilation appearances and their first full length album was released on Hungry Eye Records in May 2005.
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MORE PHOTOS
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ALBUMS
EYE19 Before the First Light
The Bay Area's Black Ice return with their third full length. Though they stay true to their signature sound, combining experimental soundscapes with some minimal electronics and an icy postpunk beat, this most recent effort is more meticulous and resolute-sounding than previous efforts. Rather than the abandon that characterized Terrible Birds or even Myopia, Before the First Light is more determinedly intense, gradually accumulating in nervous energy as the songs progress. Propelled by an insistent beat, Miss Kel's vocals dart and crash across a synth heavy clamor, alternating between icy whisper and a caterwaul that would do Danielle Dax or Lydia Lunch proud. With this noisy epic, Black Ice continue to contribute to the long tradition of Bay Area experimental and post-punk bands.
EYE14 Myopia
After spreading their unique brand of darkness to many corners of the globe with their critically lauded debut "Terrible Birds," the Oakland troublemakers return with Myopia. Upping the ante with a deeper, more full sound, the Ice continue to fuse heavy experimental soundscapes with cathartic postpunk cadences creating an addictively hypnotic sound. While their last album was quickly praised by many as one of the best and most anticipated albums of the year, Myopia is undoubtedly more icily intense and hypnotically sinister.
CD $12 PPD US/ CAN
EYE07 Terrible Birds
What started as an experimental side project to Bay Area stalwarts Phantom Limbs to compose haunting instrumental sound-scapes soon evolved to a full band of its own. Numerous compilation appearances (including Cochon Records' “Nostalgia Del Buio” compiled by Vanishing's Jesse Eva and Billy Bates as well as Manuel Cochon, and GSL Records' “Golden Grouper”) and an EP on Atakra Records landed their unnerving din instant acclaim in multiple continents. The throbbing rhythms and jagged melodies of this debut album are both atmospheric and edgy enough, and pensive and razorsharp enough to appeal to enthusiasts of indie, post-punk, and deathrock fans alike.
CD $12 PPD US/ CAN
OTHER RELEASES:
Eve EP
We managed to get in some copies of the long out of print debut Black Ice record on Atakra Records (that trailblazing label that gave you the vinyl debut of the Phantom Limbs and is about to serve you up the debut of the Red Voice Choir). Naturally, when Black Ice went to Europe, they took the rest of the copies their copies with them, and Europeans with mouths agape at the Ice's live show quickly bought them up. Hungry Eye has the last copies. Lucky us!
$10 / $14 outside North America
MEDIA
MP3 Samples
Video:
- Black ice
video for Invisible off debut "Eve EP" by the Chicago Kid
- Video for Eve E
PRESS
Reviews
- I don't think anyone but a handful of people know what to expect. They break into their opening song; No eardrum shall be spared. Mrs. Kel's rattling cries, barreling and resonant bass, paralleled by noisy but precise guitars and keys. Their set was bombastic. I think Black Ice wasn't tame enough for some of the New York intellectuals at this hip joint. I could've expected as much; you ask for art, but when it doesn't come with an Urban Outfitters price tag, the hipsters don't know what to make of it. Luckily they had a few people there to support them, and that kept the vibe strong, and everyone had a good time. -Show review of 4/22/2005 in NYC at Lit by Deathrock.com
Reviews for Terrible Birds
- Easily one of the best albums this year. - RazorCake #28
- the press release has it right, describing this music as an 'unnerving din' but they missed the 'verging on classic' status, because from a garish 'The Stillness' onwards the scathing, brutal lyrics belting out of the angular music, with its often staccato drum attack is vicious, in an underfed, dangerous way. Short, jittery songs with jaundiced guitar, snappy bass and synth icicles, they're so effectively harsh with their post-punk wrath that the oddly catchy title track and the scathing 'Elixer' are like a massively '82 era punk band gone Goth, with consistently brilliant lyrics as the icing on an impressively foul cake. The ugliness is strangely beautiful, the music as ravaged as it is ravishing. This is special. - mick mercer
- Combining death rock's morbid theatrical catharsis and post-punk's defiantly bleak structure, Black Ice have emerged as one of the
San Francisco Bay Area's most formatively impressive new artists.
Miss Kel's vehement vociferations spew forth scornful accusations on The Stillness and unleash violent black bile outbreaks on Elixir.
My Eyes Hurt is without question the most peculiar and penetratingly outstanding selection on Terrible Birds... Terrible Birds has been sprung from its rot iron cage so check the record and respect the Ice!
- Agouti Music
- Black Ice is artistically the most interesting contemporary deathrock/post-punk
band around. . . Elixer, is an instant hit.
- funprox.com
- Black Ice offer a great mix of creepy, slow-paced tracks with faster, more detached songs such as Fingers, the album's closer...Terrible Birds is a shadowy and rich experience, proving this group to be another instance of intriguing dark music coming out of the San Francisco area...- Exclaim!
- If you are a fan of Phantom Limbs and The Vanishing then Black Ice is just the treat. - Zero Magazine