Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
More neo-retro, December 11, 2002
If you are one who is particulery sick of the onslaught of new retro revivalist rock bands that have sprung up in the wake of The Strokes and their nyc progeny, then you might as well stop reading this review right here. Ikara Colt are an LA based british band that are seemingly riding the coat-tails of the minimalist garage rehash of the last year and a half. Yet while thier contemporaries, (and let's face it, superiors)such as the strokes and interpol, manage to do quite well at injecting thier own character and vitaliy into the late 70's rock and post-punk aesthetic Ikara Colt seem quite one dimensional. Thier bland sounding, almost indistinguishable from one another songs, seriously lack a sense of urgency and wit that would add some much needed color. Yet this not a band without redeming qualities. Ikara Colt has found themselves a niche with pounding out punchy, quite and efficient rockers that are short on originality, but huge on attitude and careless grit. Chat & Business takes plenty of cues from jagged edges of Joy Division to the combustablity of early 90's sonic youth in thier basic guitar, drum, vox mix that occasionly adds some synth for minimal flourishins. Oddly the bands few numbers that hint at some sort of dynamic proggesion are left until the tail end of the disc where the seem to arrive too late to infuse any power into the record Most likely this album will only have a lasting appeal for fans of rough around the edges brit pop and straight ahead rockers. Anyone looking for a real sense of substance beyond the visceral attack of Ikara Colt will probably be left unsatisfied. Bottom line, this may be a somewhat promising debut for a tight, stripped down rock band, you have to ask yourself if theres really a need for another one of those.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a new day is dawning..., December 29, 2002
If you're the type of person that doesn't like bands because they are too full of themselves ("those rock stars with their fancy sneakers!") and/or you are a raging hypocrite (but don't think you are, like me) than you will love this album. This is art punk, the stuff of classical post punkers, or at least the hint of stuff. The album opens with the brilliant (not brilliant, but I already wrote it... so there) one note, which not by coincidence only uses one note, and just gets better. This is an angry, or perhaps more appropriately dissatisfied, band. They like to yell and complain about the world as it is molded by manufactured pop and corporations (chat and business, eh...). Their name is supposedly a fictional race horse (colt, ha!), this because they believe bands should shoot themselves after five years. The song writing is full of clever little things like that. It is conscious of the prevalent intellect (there is one isn't there?), yet entertaining, and never condescending, it is alive and it is relevant. And that is what is missing from most punk these days, most being bland and pointless (bad combination for any type of music). The album just seems to be trying to serve something raw and real, and on that level they succeed, this album will hopefully be hailed as a classic in due time (at least a "colt" classic, haha), but for right now, it's a fun listen. All that being said this album is not for everybody some people are bound to purchase it and say, "This is just noise, with someone snarling incoherently in the background." If you think that you might say that, don't get this cd, but if you find yourself bored with most everything else give this cd a chance as it should grow on you with every listen, and I think that is always a good thing. Oh, and there are free stickers that you can use to decorate your album cover. So even if you don't like the music, there's that.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
One of 2002's best, May 20, 2003
With it's jittery energy, abstract lyrics, and menacing basslines, Ikara Colt sounds a lot like Pink Flag era Wire (definitely not a bad thing at all). Though a thoroughly original sound may be lacking, a stack of great art-punk tunes most certainly is not. At The Lodge is the standout. One of 2002's best albums.
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by Ikara Colt 
