icarus syndrome - The Fun Tunnels of Foosland

It is releases like this that remind me why I started this silly blog years ago.  If you have visited this site with any frequency whatsoever then Icarus Syndrome needs no introduction to you.  His first album in something like 5 or 6 years does anything but disappoint.  Undergoing countless demos and revisions in the 5 year span, this is the culmination of a great songwriter taking utmost care in honing his craft.  Forgoing the usual Icarus modus operandi of 47-minute cassette albums, this one clocks in at about 70 minutes with maybe thirty existing copies floating around.  It was recorded to a Yamaha MT8X 8-track cassette recorder and mixed down in real time (with assistance and FX manipulation by yours truly) to a 1/4" two track reel-to-reel machine.

Sonically speaking, there are many elements here (namely, the use of organ beats) that greatly remind me of picking up where perhaps Pie Rhymes left off but with more of a rock approach at times.  Though, there are some stellar acoustic and instrumental meditations thrown in to balance out the overall delivery.  Lyrically, there is A LOT going on; expertly tackled are such subjects as death, regeneration, the subconscious tunnels of the human psyche, motorboating a pair of cosmic breasts, finding solace in matinees, ladies of danger, bad gravity as a byproduct of the human condition, and the innerconnectedness (sic) of all things.  I've personally witnessed the lyrical evolution of many of these songs and am constantly surprised at the quality of what actually gets thrown out in favor of something even better, but in the end it's all for the sake of the song.  In conversations with the man behind this work of art, he seems to have a general view that everything he recorded up until this album is considered "practice" or perhaps his version of an "undergrad degree."  This is his Master's.

Here's a link to the man's bandcamp if you feel compelled to pay for the album.