Planet of Ice

Minus the Bear

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 21, 2007)
• Original Release Date: August 21, 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Suicide Squeeze
• ASIN: B000RLW5J6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #40,829 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Minus the Bear's Planet of Ice marks the Seattle band's third full-length release (not counting three EPs and a remix album), and achieves an effect as spacious and blinding white as the landscape the title evokes. Psychedelia and math rock are here in equal parts, making for a somewhat bi-polar listening experience--the excellent "Part 2" opens with a downright Pink Floydian acoustic guitar before winding up to a driving circuitous conclusion, while nine-minute closer "Lotus" reels all over the stylistic map, starting and stopping in a mini-suite of hammering guitars and vaporous keyboards. Most songs keep well away from a standard verse-chorus structure, with lyric and instrumental passages stitched together like some indie rock Frankenstein (tracks are occasionally book-ended by wittily realized sonic manipulations that might cause the listener to check the CD for skips), but Minus the Bear keeps the melodies potent and the emotion high enough to prevent Planet of Ice from drifting into impenetrable shoe-gazer territory. --Ben Heege

Product Description

For the past six years, Seattle’s Minus the Bear have orbited the music world like a distant meteor, fine-tuning their brand of indie rock and discovering how technology can help enhance the band’s unique pop vision all of which is about to culminate with their latest full-length Planet of Ice, an album showing the band not so much transforming their sound as transcending it. Although the band has released a handful of EPs and two full-lengths in their prolific career (most recently 2005’s Menos El Oso and the sister remix CD Interpretaciones Del Oso), with Planet of Ice the band which now features new keyboardist Alex Rose have taken their brand of idiosyncratic indie rock to new heights. I feel like this is the most cohesive record we’ve done, bassist Cory Murchy says. I hate the term ‘organic,’ but that’s the one term I can think of when comparing this to our other records because there’s a lot of weird electronic stuff going on there, but there’s some really raw riffage as well.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Darker and more complex but brilliant, August 26, 2007

By	Jay (Providence, RI) - See all my reviews

Well, first of all I must say that this is most likely not the type of album that you'll instantly love on the first listen. I've been through it about 10 times and it has grown on me immensely. Whether you're new to the band or an avid fan, however, this album may not be for everyone. It is darker, has a more psychedelic sound, and is more complex than their previous efforts. The smooth, easy-going sound of older songs such as "Pachuca Sunrise" are mostly replaced by a more ominous and intricate sound. It may take several listens to fully appreciate.

The band has certainly matured and its sound has, for lack of a better word, evolved. Songs like "Part 2" feature a more mellow acoustic sound, and "Double Vision Quest" and "Lotus" feature the band experimenting with more complex song structures, and it the case of the latter, an all-out 8 minute jam. Covering more familiar territory is the track "Ice Monster," which pairs a great light-sounding instrumental backdrop with a chorus so addictive you'll want it to put it on repeat.

On the surface, though, you will find the catchy guitar hooks, brilliant odd time signature drumming, and soaring vocals that are a trademark of the band. Songs such as "Knights" and "Throwin Shapes" will probably seem most like old-school Minus The Bear. All in all I highly recommend that you do yourself a favor and get this album. If anything, you'll feel like you've experienced something entirely original and refreshing (which, by the way is almost completely lacking in today's pop music scene).

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good stuff, October 2, 2007

By	UltraJoeBot (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

When we last left Seattle's indie superheroes Minus The Bear in 2005, they had just released the pseudo-self-titled Menos El Oso, a flawless math-pop album featuring perfectly tight compositions with tasteful guitar-tapping heroics set to danceable grooves. The album had such an impact, it even warranted a collection of remixes, Interpretaciones Del Oso, released in February. The writing was more complex and deliberate than their previous work, the songs more fully-realized with lush arrangements and catchy choruses.

The most striking change evident on their new album Planet Of Ice, is the loose and almost epic feel to the songs. The band is less concerned with formulaic structures and memorable hooks, and more focused on creating dense textures and soundscapes, trading in Menos El Oso's pop sensibilities for prog unison lines, thick vocal layering, and even the occasional guitar solo. Replacement keyboardist Alex Rose adds a new dimension to their signature sound, whether filling the space with subtle rhodes layering or soaring 70s sawtooth synth pads.

Where the spirit of experimentation was contained to brief playful moments on Menos El Oso, here it is decidedly more overt. In the dreamy dance track "Knights," what might otherwise be dismissed as a singular sour note on the guitar, is instead featured prominently, repeated several times and doubled at the octave, as if to tell the listener, "No, seriously, it's not a mistake." On the brooding epic "Dr. L'Ling," it's actually the tight vocal harmonies that ground the song and solidify the tonality, while dual guitar noodling and unison bends serve as accents, rather than the backbone of the song.

Side by side with the more experimental tracks are the catchy pop hooks we've come to expect from Minus The Bear. When vocalist Jake Snider sings "You must be an illusion, can I see through you?" on "When We Escape," it's a chorus you could listen to on loop indefinitely. The balance between infectious pop and meandering prog rock can't be easy to achieve, but the band somehow manages to pull it off, making the jump between the shimmering disco of "Throwin' Shapes" to the unabashed psychedelia of the nearly nine-minute "Lotus" without missing a beat.

I was fortunate enough to hear the song "Ice Monster" previewed on their last tour, and if that performance was any indication, this is definitely an album to be experienced live. In the end, Planet Of Ice will surely alienate a few fans, namely the ones who looked to the band for pleasant background party music, but that was never really what Minus The Bear was about. They're clearly in their element this time around, and they've been doing this long enough to afford themselves the opportunity to make the album they want.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars She's gone across the border, man., September 15, 2007

By	Leonidas Abril Baron "Juicy Jay" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Minus the Bear has progressed since This Is What I Know About Being Gigantic and the era of Highly Refined Pirates (in my opinion, the best MTB album out there.) This CD combines a bit of similar tunes since the previous albums, yet they never fail to combine new amazing tunes and guitar string notes. Also, another great factor to Minus the Bear has always been drums and percussion is in constant progression, lyrical sense has always bothered me with MTB, although some lyrics can be dearly inspiring and sincere and swell, in most of the songs the lyrics simply fade into extremely stupid sentences that make no sense. MTB also can throw a good show, so if you're ever in desire for a good indie show, I recommend MTB. I'm stoked to find out what they boys have in store for the world next.