Artist - IQU
Album - Sun Q
Label - Sonic Boom Recordings
Reviewer - Brent Steven White
Who would have thought that creative and artsy music still existed in the Pacific Northwest. Didn't it die in the late nineties? Apparently not.About the time Alice in Chains and Soundgarden decided to call it quits, and about the time bands like Sweaty Nipples and Floater were on the verge of putting the area back on the map, a group called IQU (pronounced ee-koo) formed in Olympia, WA. The group, which consists of keyboardist Michiko Swiggs, bassist Aaron Hartman and guitarist/turnablist K.O, write catchy, melody driven, synthed out songs with artsy class and elite elegance. It's been four years since the group released anything, but, clearly, the time away was well spent. IQU's newest release,Sun Q, is a solid and well polished album.
That's not to say this band is doing anything different, however. On Sun Q, IQU deceitfully suck out the qualities of such international acts as Daft Punk, Bjork, and Japanese genius Cornelius, and in doing so, nearly choke on their own thievery. The albums title track sounds exactly (down to the melodies) like a song called "Brazil" by the aforementioned band Cornelius. "The 9th Line" sounds like a song written and released as a single by eighties act The Talking Heads. And the synths in "Dirty Boy" are taken directly from a track off the Daft Punk album Interstella 5555.
What saves this album from being a complete rip-off, and from falling into copy-cat obscurity, is it's accessibility. The songs, a part from being occasionally dull and repetitive, are well constructed and pleasing to listen to. "Under the Cherry Blossom," the album's first track, begins with a simple delayed techno progression then continues to build until a well crafted electronic drum track comes in, adding perfectly to the ambience of a note following a consistent melismatic pattern. "Loving You," easily the album's best track, sounds almost like a 19th century opera being sung over the sound of a hovercraft with slay bells. (Picture a fat woman on a mountain singing beautifully in a foreign language with a hint of sadness in her electronic voice.) "Sun Q's" rhythmic tendencies would get even the most rhythmically lost listener moving.
At its very best, IQU's "Sun Q" can be captivating, stimulating, and stylish. Areas of the album feel bright and brilliant, and may leave you with the feeling that you're observing something that is very much indeed unique and original. But its those other areas of the album where you feel, and you know, that you're not. Instead, you feel like what you're hearing something you've heard before, and then it's a bit like observing something nonsensical, or pointless, like a dog chasing it's tail.
