Icon of Coil 
Machines Are Us
~review by DJ Aesthetic

It didn’t take a DJ or even a regular club-goer to recognize something unique about the Norwegian cyberpunk-electro outfit, “Icon of Coil,” back around their debut in 2000. My own introductions came from their exclusive version of, “Repeat It” featured on the Tatra Records compilation, “Sex, Goth & Electronics.” It was about 57 seconds in to the song before I knew that I’d be hearing a lot more about this band in the near future.

“Machines Are Us” is a perfect example of why it’s a rarity that a single club night goes by without hearing at least one IOC track over the dance floor. Truth be told, I found their last album, “The Soul is in the Software” to be a bit bland and boring compared to its predecessor, “Serenity is the Devil.” Typically with a lot of Electro/EBM style albums, my biggest complaint lies in the fact that all they’re often good for is ‘dance floor’ tracks and don’t have any sort of flow or emotion that could be enjoyed away from a dance club. Machines Are Us is a perfect example of the album that breaks this frequent disappointment.

My only real “complaint” about this album was on the song “WireTrip” which to me seemed far too reminiscent of the Madonna track, “Music” featuring the verse, “Hey, Mr. DJ...,” a little too similar to the IOC verse, “Hey, Mr. Speaker...” Thankfully this track came immediately before some of the other better songs on the album to make up for it.

A few tracks from the CD were quick to capture my attention. My personal favorite ended up being the album’s first single, “Android.” This is the type of song that has people flooding the dance floor before they even know what it is (perhaps fitting, considering the song title). “Sleep:Less” also came in as a close second. Lyrically speaking, I found both songs to be somewhat unique in the amount of emotion that drips from them, especially for ‘Electro’ songs. Overall, Machines Are Us is one of the best electronic albums that I expect to see in 2004.

Buy it – you’ll be e-mailing to thank me later…

The Tracks:
Comment V.2.0
Remove/Replace
Consumer
Shelter
Mono:Overload?
Existence in Progress
Faith: Not Important
Transfer:Complete
Dead Enough For Life
WireTrip
Android
Sleep:Less
Persuit
Release the Frequency / Afterwords

The Machines:
Andy LaPlegua: Lyrics/Vocals/Additional Programming and Producing
Sebastian R. Komor: Programming/Producing and Backing Vocals
Christian Lund: Live Keys and Live Backing Vocals

Icon of Coil Website: http://www.iconofcoil.com
Metropolis Records (USA): http://www.metropolis-records.com
Out of Line (Europe): http://www.outofline.de
 

07/13/04