ICARUS kick-started a new stage in their career when their recent track ‘Love Has Come Around’ was picked as their fourth consecutive Hottest Record (after ‘King Kong’, ‘Trouble’ and ‘No Sleep’) by long-term supporter Annie Mac. It also earned plays from Pete Tong, Danny Howard, and Alice Levine as well as positive coverage from Earmilk, Clash and The Times.
Now the Bristol-based production brothers have shared the follow-up track ‘Flowers’ together with the new EP ‘In The Dark’.
In contrast to the strident futuristic disco of ‘Love Has Come Around’, ‘Flowers’ darkens the mood and drops the tempo in a tale of a relationship gone awry. The soulful topline charts a relationship from the spark of its early days (“I will bring you flowers to your door / Coffee in your bedroom every dawn”) to its breaking point (“Sorry for the promises I broke”).
“The lyrics are more direct, but there are very dark overtones to the music,” says ICARUS’s Ian Griffiths. “It’s talking about situations early in a relationship,” adds his brother Tom. “Maybe it’s not right, but you still want it to happen.”
‘Love Has Come Around’ and ‘Flowers’ both feature on ICARUS’s new narrative EP ‘In the Dark’. The story commences with ‘Love Has Come Around’ which represents the euphoria and the excitement that comes with a new relationship. Yet the narrative shifts with ‘I Could Leave', which finds ICARUS’s progressive tendencies evocatively switch the atmosphere from delight to distrust, before ‘Flowers’ brings the story to its conclusion.
The ‘In The Dark’ EP represents an opportunity for ICARUS to make a bigger artistic statement while exploring the extremes of their sonic palette. It’s an approach heightened by the visuals: dusky, neon colors which represent their clubland roots, darker tones for the nocturnal atmospherics of their sound, and fiery reds for unrestrained passion.
ICARUS also recently achieved “a real milestone for us and a big tick off the bucket list” when they contributed their first Essential Mix for Pete Tong at Radio 1. They weaved their own tracks ‘Trouble’ and ‘No Sleep’ into a diverse mix which included cuts from artists including Rhythm Masters, Bonobo, Jon Hopkins and Mark Mackenzie, the latter of whom is signed to ICARUS’s own Fly Boy Records.
Next for ICARUS comes a defining moment in their rising career as they’re set to embark upon their first live headline tour. They’ll follow shows in London, Bristol, and Manchester with festival sets at Parklife and the South West Four Weekender:
APRIL
26th – London, Electrowerkz
27th – Bristol, Marble Factory
28th – Manchester, Gorilla
JUNE
9th – 10th – Parklife
AUGUST
25th – South West Four Weekender
Photo Via ICARUS Facebook
