Ice Choir Debut Album Afar Out July 31 On Underwater Peoples
Ice Choir will release their debut album Afar on July 31 via Underwater Peoples. Afar is a record that sounds like it was tracked thirty years ago in a $5,000-a- day studio: all sheen, synths, compressed guitars and digitally revived vocals yet is as bedroom-and-laptop as any; written and produced on the road and out of suitcases over the past 12 months by The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart drummer Kurt Feldman (and later brought to life via MIDI and an extensive collection of outmoded vintage synthesizers). The album was produced by Feldman and mixed by Violens’ Jorge Elbrecht. 80s production married to 19th Century poetic influences, simultaneously disengaged and deeply personal, the immediacy of its melodies obscuring ornate arrangements, Afar revels in the multiple contradictions it presents to listeners. Pitchfork is running an MP3 premiere of “Teletrips” from Afar, a track they describe as “a slinky jam that invokes 1980s R&B, somewhere between Spandau Ballet and Michael Jackson’s ‘Human Nature.’”