The Icarus Line: Penance Soiree

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * * *)



They're here tomorrow night and even if you can't make it, this album suggests they might be the biggest, baddest underground-gone-overground thing in rock in quite some time.

From the opening salvo, the charmingly titled Up Against The Wall Mother******* to the grim but beautiful ending Party the Baby Off, they gearshift from Stooges swagger to echoes of English-influenced late-80s druggy drone-blasts (at best on the slow-fused thrills of Getting Bright at Night).

In between are some perplexing avant-rock sonic pile-ups suggesting some fairly incongruous influences - Led Zeppelin, say hello to My Bloody Valentine - fighting to be heard.

Baffling and brilliant, the Icarus Line sound like they're on a mission to drive rock out of the safe confines of the garage and make it go careering wildly through the streets, once more.

Label: FMR/ V2