ICEHOUSE WENT BACK TO BASICS FOR BIG WHEEL

A couple of home grown aussie reviews tonight, both featuring songs which are anything but the glossy american rock i have been leaning towards of late.


Even by rough and ready australian pub rock standards, these two songs are not the standard fare. ICEHOUSE, led by the heavily David Bowie/Bryan Ferry inspired IVA DAVIES, cut quite a niche on the australian music scene during the 1980`s with a string of immaculately produced progressive rock influenced albums, which reached its zenith with the 1986 album MAN OF COLOURS.


By the early 90`s, the whole music scene in Australia had changed just like it had in america, radio had now disowned pop metal, AOR and most forms of contemporary rock, instead preferring to play hip hop, rap and by the end of 1991, Seattle grunge. ICEHOUSE would have to change it style to remain relevant, even in Australia where the band was well established.


As it turned out, the comeback 1993 album for ICEHOUSE titled BIG WHEEL was a commercial flop, despite an attempt by Davies to adopt a much more stripped down sound that was compatible with the new world order of alternative rock.


BIG WHEEL was recorded at Davies' home at Whale Beach, in the company of bandmates David Chapman and Paul Wheeler, you cant get anymore back to basics and less pretentious than that for a rock star.


The three stand out songs were released as the singles, BIG WHEEL the song, SATELITE and INVISIBLE PEOPLE. Only Satelite scraped onto the australian rock chart. BIG WHEEL is a bit messy and lacking musical direction, but it's still better than half the alternative rock that escaped out of america during the 90`s.