guest column appearance by tim howard
Like the original crew of Star Trek, Londoners Ikara Colt were on a five year mission. They, too were a product of their time: ten years ago, back in 1999, the perceived apocalypse was gathering and releasing tension in music. The upside to this meant that the world got filled with a new breed of distorted guitar bands, schooled on Dischord records and early Sonic Youth but sounding as clean and precise as something from the space-age 21st century ought to. There were many downsides to this. (See: Mission Impossible II soundtrack. But don’t watch the film).
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Ikara Colt were firmly on the upside; their recordings were fresh with just the right amount of throwbacks to the sounds of The Pixies minus the surf, or the fresh-faced Wire, but still forward-looking. Their sound was macho enough to appeal to most guys, but leveled with enough chic restraint for girls to dig it. And for all the tempo, yells, attitude and distortion they were hooky enough without going down Pop Avenue.
In their short, sweet time together, they put out their first album, Chat & Business, in March 2002, by which time they were getting press alongside some of London’s other hot, loud tickets of the day like The Parkinsons. It was twelve tracks of the band’s distinctive grit, gathering swell reviews in whomever lap it fell.
They followed it up with the Basic Instructions EP later that year; all-new material that was louder and more expansive, mixing in some electronics to their sound without messing up their basic chemistry.
With a glut of tours under their belt, they dropped 2004’s Modern Apprentice. This record was another step forward; more refined than its predecessor, laying deeper grooves and gathering acclaim from reviewers that got excited to hear where the band might go next.
So where did it all go wrong? Well, mostly, it didn’t go wrong. Fans of Ikara Colt knew that the band weren’t going to go anywhere next. They’d said so all along, even including a clue in their name – supposedly a fictional racehorse. Five years was all the world was going to get, as from the off they’d decided to split before they got too old and too jaded to play. What’s admirable is that they actually went through with it in January 2005. What’s sad is that one same fact.
