Ice - Bad Blood

I was originally going to post this when El-P's "I'll Sleep When You're Dead" CD came out as part of a Post-Apocalyptic hip hop package, but I never got around to it because it was one of those ideas that I think about doing while I'm at work during the day and then I get home and don't feel like doing anything that resembles a good deed to the general public.

Then while I was uploading it, I noticed it wasn't actually out of print, which I was kind of amazed by. I still think it's pretty hard to come by if you're searching in normal stores, but you can still mail order it from a number of places, like Amazon, so if you enjoy it, support the scene or something and buy it for $4.

Annnnyway, Ice was a group featuring Justin Broderick, who is most known for being in Godflesh, but the younger folks and hipsters would also recognize him from his current group, Jesu. Kevin Martin was also in Ice, and he's known for a number of weirdo projects, but also went on to form Techno Animal with Justin Broderick, which is like a more refined version of Ice.

This was Ice's second CD. The first was a lot more industrial, but "Bad Blood" was heavily influenced by hip hop. Of course, Broaderick and Martin filtered that hip hop influence through their respective heavy-as-balls and all over the place weirdo musical backgrounds, and while this isn't something that 90% of the average hip hop fanbase would enjoy, as far as making something that sounds like actual hip hop if that Mad Max shit actually went down, they were spot on.

The songs are very long and most don't have actual rap song structures. I guess if you were a prick, you could call them "soundscapes". The reason I like the CD is because the drums are devestatingly heavy. If they ever took drums like this, and placed them under a more formal hip hop sound, it could have been brutal. Of course, this is kind of what they ended up doing with Techno Animal, but that's even too out there for most people.

I'd reccomend this for fans of Dalek, Techno Animal (both groups worked together on a 12" I'll probably post up one day once I dig it out), EL-P and anything in between. El-P even pops up on this, but he had a knack for finding weird shit to pop up on back then.

If you're open minded, you might want to give this a try, but you also might want to smoke a ton of weed or PCP before taking a listen.

Ice - Bad Blood (1998. Morpheus/Reprise Records)

1. X-1 (7:11) Vocals - Blixa Bargeld , Sebastian Laws

2. The Snakepit (5:56) Rap - Toastie Taylor Scratches - DJ Vadim Vocals - Blixa Bargeld

3. Trapped In Three Dimensions (7:38) Rap - A-Syde , El-P

4. Dusted (6:53) Rap - Sensational Vocals - Sebastian Laws

5. A New Breed Of Rat (11:54) Vocals - Blixa Bargeld

6. Devils (7:04)

7. When Two Worlds Collide (7:11)

Click here to listen.