iOD!NE - NYC Subway

Hear The Track Here

Like Batman, I love it when a plan comes together. Take, for instance, my first run in with Canadian rock gods iOD!NE (and that's positively the last time I am going to write it like that!) when I was blown away by Meander (December 2007) and laid a Must Have at their feet. The reason (well the main one anyway) is that I am an insatiable rock junkie and I need my regular fix - this band supplies enough of that to get me to the point of overdose. Which, I guess, is the whole point cos it's only rock and roll, innit? See, what I like most about rock is twofold; a tight band and a jaw dropping guitarist, throw in a good vocalist and hello Hog Heaven. Admittedly, it's all a bit flash and seriously pongs of prog-rock but with performances like this, Iodine are entitled.

Yeah, keeerrrrannnggg.

Like Meander, NYC Subway has been remastered by Andrew Britton who definitely deserves the namecheck; what you hear is powerful enough to light up anyones skull. The track was inspired by hours and hours of playing games such as F.E.A.R and you can hear the game references everywhere, from the kinda loopy rhythms to the bleeps and clips familiar from arcade games. OK so what does this have to do with rock exactly? Well, let me put it this way, it looks very bizarre laid out in print like this but believe me it actually delivers an epic of construction that could only be called by one name. It shall be named prog-rock.

Aha! Is it time to run away yet?

You all know my feelings about the prog rock genre so you would expect this track to have a bumpy ride. It's to the skill of the band at delivering such material, but you better believe it may be a challenging peice for some tastes. Especially if you only like music that goes whumpa! whumpha!! As it is, the band throw enough musical nous into the mix to keep a grizzled old prog-rock cynic (that's me folks) interested in it enough to give it the requisite playlist workout. Again, it shows that Iodine have what it takes and I would imagine that they are a terrific live band. Having said all that, this is a noisy track that blunts the production and that only becomes noticeable after a few plays, but nonetheless the music does win out.

Atmospheric rock. Highly Recommended.