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Ice Premiere “Gypsy” from The Ice Age out July 10 on RidingEasy

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on June 24th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

ice the ice age

Seeing its first official release since it was recorded some 50 years ago, Ice‘s first and only full-length, The Ice Age, will be released by RidingEasy Records on July 10. It was originally supposed to come out in April, but frankly after half a century do a few more months really matter? By now, the narrative of the-great-heavy-’70s-lost-classic is well enough familiar. How many times has that story been told? Hundreds? Thousands maybe? RidingEasy are certainly no strangers to the era, between their Brown Acid archival compilation series and their Randy Holden reissue, not to mention supporting those who likewise worship that moment in time like DunbarrowBUSSvvamp and so on. Ice‘s The Ice Age is different though.

Think of it this way: Yeah, there are thousands of those records out there, from Atomic Rooster and Cactus to Spooky Tooth and Rare Earth. The heavy ’70s are a treasure trove, and an entire universe of formative heavy rock and roll and proto-metal exists waiting to be discovered by anyone who might want to take the time. Fine. How many of those bands have unreleased recordings? At this point? Far fewer. And how many entirely lost albums are there? Far fewer, let alone those that are as complete and as righteous front to back as The Ice Age, which digs into burly hooks on “Copper Penny” and rocks hard on opener “Gypsy,” but reminds of some of Bang‘s balladeering on the six-minute penultimate (and longest) cut “He Rides Among the Clouds,” pulling back on the brash swagger of “Running High” which is no doubt written in homage to how tight these dudes wore their bell-bottom jeans. One way or the other, they manage to make an impression as the five-piece that was, the prominent organ work of Barry Crawford (als0 vocals) sounding ahead of its time owing perhaps in some measure to the modern ears that mixed it here, but still engaging alongside John Schaffer‘s lead guitar on the mellower “3 O’Clock in the Morning,” which follows the initial push of “Gypsy” and “Satisfy” at The Ice Age‘s outset — or dawning, as it were.

Crawford, rhythm guitarist Richard Strange and bassist Jim Lee handle vocals throughout — the latter in the lead position — while Mike Saligoe rounds out on drums, and the interaction between different singers bolsters the songwriting even unto a later cut like “Run to Me,” which is an upbeat but still laid back straightforward heavy rocker, Lee‘s voice gruff in the verse giving way to a more melodic chorus. This along with the semi-early-prog instrumental climbing of “Copper Penny,” the post-McCartney bounce in the second half of “3 O’Clock in the Morning” and the sweeter and more accessible take of “I Can See Her Flying” help assure that the 10-song/37-minute LP brings enough dynamic to sustain itself, and it does to a striking measure, closing out with “Song of the East,” the early organeering of which gives way to lockstep guitar and organ leads in a rhythmic march that seems like it’s going to carry The Ice Age to its finish before the band sharply brings the song back to its central progression.

So what the hell was it, right? Isn’t that the question? What stopped Ice from releasing The Ice Age in the first place? Was there no one around in their native Indianapolis who’d get behind the album for even a private press edition that collectors now could fawn over like so many others? How did The Ice Age end up languishing for 50 — five-zero — years while countless other records have been heralded to a point of revising the history of rock and metal to see to their inclusion in it? Hey Ice, where you been all my life?

I don’t have the answer to any of that — sorry to disappoint. Band recorded, band broke up. Zukus!, who were featured on a Brown Acid release noted below, were the same band as Ice, but the bulk of this material never came out before. Rest assured, it’s been treated lovingly and with due reverence for this release; it’s hard to imagine those tapes sounding this clean when they came off the shelf or out of whatever cardboard box or closet they lived in for all that time. But if The Ice Age didn’t warrant that, it wouldn’t have been chased down in the first place. So here we are.

Will The Ice Age rewrite rock history? No. It never came out, so it’s not like it had some massive but undervalued influence.  But it is a curio among curios, and it is of a quality that deserves to be heard, and frankly to have been heard all this while. Better late than never? Yeah, that too.

You can dig into the premiere of “Gypsy” on the player below and find more background from the PR wire beneath that.

Please enjoy:

As RidingEasy Records’ highly successful Brown Acid series (now at 10 volumes and counting) proves, there is a massive amount of incredible heavy psych and proto-metal music that has been lost to the sands of time. Case in point, the astoundingly great 50-year-old album The Ice Age by Indianapolis quintet ICE was never even released upon its completion.

In the late 1960’s five young men formed a rock & roll band on the west side of Indianapolis, Indiana. They chose the coolest name possible: ICE. The group consisted of vocalist/keyboardist Barry Crawford, lead vocalist/ bassist Jim Lee, drummer Mike Saligoe, lead guitarist John Schaffer and rhythm guitarist/vocalist Richard Strange. They was among the first bands to perform an all original set throughout the Midwest at high schools, colleges & concert venues. They opened for national acts like Three Dog Night, SRC, Kenny Rogers & the First Edition, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and others in arenas and theaters.

In 1970, the band recorded 10 original songs at 8-Track Studios in Chicago Illinois, only to break up shortly thereafter. Two of the tracks were eventually released as a 45 in 1972, but confusingly under a different band name, Zukus! The A-side of that single was featured on Brown Acid: The Ninth Trip, which led RidingEasy Records to discover when licensing the track that an entire album had been languishing in obscurity all of this time. The 2-inch master tapes had been shelved and forgotten until recently when The Ice Age tracks were converted to digital and remixed, preserving the sounds of the original vocals & instruments. Finally, half a century later, this 10-song album of radio-ready rock will finally see light of day.

The Ice Age will be available on LP, CD and download on July 10th, 2020 via RidingEasy Records.

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