ARTIST: Iron Hero
TITLE: Safe as Houses
LABEL: Self-Released
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 224kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 45m total
RELEASE DATE: 2006-02-17
RIP DATE: 2006-07-03
Track List
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1. Wearing a Wire 3:35
2. Pilot 4:12
3. Heart of a Ghost 4:40
4. Spy Versus Spy 3:43
5. Voices Breaking Up 5:07
6. Sleepy Eyes 2:08
7. Cloudburst 4:38
8. Bomb Shelter 4:36
9. Terms/Conditions 5:17
10. We Should Run While We Have the 7:33
Chance
Release Notes:
http://www.ironhero.net
http://www.myspace.com/ironhero
Reverb guitars, keyboard beats and bleeps and drums build up to drive the songs
on Safe As Houses into a crescendo before crashing into a sea of ambient
soundscapes. Influences ranging from the Talking Heads, Can, and Sonic Youth can
be heard on the Athens, Georgia sextetÆs album. To add to this, overtones of
Brian Eno, another one of the Georgian bandÆs musical heroes, can be heard in
abundance on ôSleepy Eyes,ö a lulling instrumental of ethereal beauty. After
this track, the pace picks up once again with softly distorted but gently
wailing guitars in ôCloudburst.ö Simpsonæs bass and Wilcox and Hastyæs drums
provides the track with a steady beat and skeletal structure from which the rest
of the band members can freely experiment with weird and innovative sounds
emanating from their guitars and keyboards. This is not to say that Iron HeroÆs
compositions are fractured and random. On the contrary, the band cleverly and
successfully combines traditional song structures and instruments with their
more off the wall moments.
Of all the tracks on Safe As Houses, ôVoice Breaking Upö best demonstrates the
bandÆs songwriting prowess. It begins slowly, with barely audible guitars and
wobbly keyboard bearings before vocals chime in with Wilcox's drums and HastyÆs
bells. The pace picks up, the song takes form, and a robust melody emerges from
the preceding ambience before finally winding down and washing out into silence.
An interesting and often surprising listen, those with equally adventurous ears
should definitely check out this album.