Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 31/11/05
Label: Domino

Test Icicles recently got bottled off when they supported Arctic Monkeys in Liverpool. It's not hard to guess why.

Everything about this band is provocative. They've got names straight out of a Chris Morris satire: Sam Merrann, Devonte Hynez, Rory Aggwelt. They're fashionistas. They sport floppy fringes and visors and low-slung skatewear. They're Anglo-American-Australian. They play most of their gigs on Kingsland Road, Shoreditch. Their guitars are pink. They span genres. Everything they do is thinly coated with irony.

In short, they're not The Magic Numbers. This is one of the reasons you should love them, but "For Screening Purposes Only" offers plenty more. Look no further than opening track "Your Biggest Mistake", a head-spinning mash-up of art-punk, rap and death-metal that proves so wrong as to be right, setting us off on a mentalist journey through this trio's (presumably) diverse record collections and (indisputably) perverse imaginations.

Inevitably that journey peaks with the singles "Boa Versus Python" and "Circle Square Triangle", in which catchy choruses struggle to be heard while the band aim at a coherent blend of indie-pop, hardcore and click-house; then abandon that in favour of sounding as incoherent as possible. The results are as electrifying as they are confusing. At times it seems this record might render Kasabian redundant overnight. You can only hope.

"For Screening Purposes Only" takes its title from the 1999 Richard Cummings-directed LA gang movie "Thicker Than Water", in which said phrase appears onscreen every time someone's about to get killed. That sense of ironic distance, of living life at one remove, pervades everything Test Icicles do. We saw them interviewed on MTV2 recently and they just couldn't stop smirking. Maybe that's one way of coping with the fog of pretension that is Zane Lowe, but it also suggests that these guys ain't exactly For Real. Their message seems to be: don't invest your hopes and dreams in us, but check out this cool new riff we just dreamt up. Like, one of the songs on here is called "Party on Dudes (Get Hype)". Says it all, yeah?

Without question, for all its eclecticism, "For Screening Purposes Only" is a dumb, disposable record that no one will listen to in 12 months' time. Indeed, even after several listens you'll struggle to remember any of the "choruses", such as they are. That said, it's (mostly) riotously entertaining, and it quickens your pulse with its air of unfettered anarchy.

In a world where even the dourest, most conventional angst-rockers can be viewed as edgy and innovative, Test Icicles represent nothing less than a tonic. So: drink it up, people, and don't worry about the hangover.

    by Niall O'Keeffe