Six Soviet Misfits compiles two years of
Icarus releases onto two compact discs. Disc one collects the UL-6 and Soviet Igloo EPs. Disc two holds the entirety of 2002's Misfits. What becomes clear over the course of the two discs is that
Ollie Bown and
Sam Britton are comfortable mining two musical genres: the jazzy, skittering drum'n'bass associated with
Amon Tobin and
Squarepusher, and the mournful clicks + cuts new-millennium IDM made popular by Morr Music and Kompakt artists. Indeed, the material from Misfits sees
Icarus as a kind of missing link between
Squarepusher and
Múm, as drum'n'bass clattering blends effortlessly with sweet brittle ambient tones. Friends
Dan Snaith (aka
Manitoba) and
Kieran Hebden (aka
Four Tet) should be credited with getting a buzz started for the duo, as they name checked
Icarus repeatedly in the music press around the time of this collection's release.
Hebden in particular praised
Icarus as some of the finest purveyors of electronic music. That
Six Soviet Misfits fails to prove
Hebden's hype should be obvious, with endless noodling and groove surfing cropping up far too frequently, but
Icarus do enough things right to take a solid position among their peers. They know their way around techno noir atmosphere, to be sure.
Six Soviet Misfits is far from groundbreaking, definitely less than essential, but still a mostly interesting mix of two electronic genres.
Britton and
Bown are just a couple spoonfuls of innovation short.