Track Review: ICE-TV // Spünday

Inspired by the Japanese noise rock band Melt-Banana, UK-based Spünday has an eclectic and obscure sound. Considering they are inspired by Melt-Banana, it seems apt that the band was unofficially formed at a Melt-Banana concert when Scunge (vocals and guitar), Daf (bass) and Chich (drums) met. Despite their new-ness as a band first releasing music during the Covid-19 pandemic, Spünday is already turning heads across the globe. Featured in The Other Side Reviews, Less Than 1000 Followers, Rising Artists Blog, We Write About Music, Roadie Music and Edgar Allan Poets, the lads have hit the indie blogosphere with a bang. The latest addition to their well-received repertoire is the single ‘ICE-TV’.

Following their 2021 album Show Wave Gang Bang, Spünday take an experimental stance in their new track ‘ICE-TV’. Loud and brash from the first chord, this is a typically “in your face” punk sound. The thing is, while there is an old-school punk design to the song, it has elements making it uniquely Spünday with interspersed electronica influences. In fact, there are electronically arranged spoken words in the song bringing a contemporary feel to the music.

Combining pounding drums with powerful guitars and distorted bass, ‘ICE-TV’ is, in a word, noisy. Hard-hitting and high-paced, there is barely time for a breath of air as you headbang your way through the track. Tossed from pillar to post, listening to ‘ICE-TV’ is like plunging headfirst into thrashing waves but enjoying it immensely. Recorded by producers Set Phasers To Scunge at The Loft Studios, Tonypandy, there is a kaleidoscopic arrangement to this single that is incomparable to other bands.

When I say kaleidoscopic, I mean kaleidoscopic as the song touches on abstract, colourful issues like the darker side of human nature. The band shares that ‘ICE-TV’ is “a hallucinatory journey into the seedy underbelly of the darker aspects of a human psyche revealing unknown depravities and interests.” This intense message is clear not only in the lyricism but in the franticness and head-spinning sound. Gritty, brutal and spine-chilling, ‘ICE-TV’ is a shot of vodka with Spünday as your bartender.