Street cafe (Icehouse) (LP 2796)

Icehouse  Primitive Man (CD, Chrysalis Records, 1982) ***  

Genre: Synth pop

Places I remember: The Warehouse

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Great Southern Land

Gear costume: Street Cafe

Active compensatory factors: Icehouse is an Aussie 'band' that is really just multi-instrumentalist/writer/singer Iva Davies.

Icehouse's Primitive Man was hugely successful down under, thanks to those big hit singles. Great Southern Land is a great song, and the reason why I bought this album out of the sale bins in The Warehouse (when they stocked CDs that is).

The synth pop sound is expertly crafted into songs by Davies on the album and although it is completely rooted in 1982 it's still pleasant to listen to, or at least, the hits are. The instrumentals sound like filler to me. Maybe he was trying for a Berlin era Bowie kind of thing. One of the songs is called 'Glam' after all, and it includes German lyrics. He certainly has some Bowie-isms on full display.

The bonus selections are good for once - 12-inch mixes of the hits.

Where do they all belong? My only Icehouse album, thanks to Great Southern Land.

Great southern land (icehouse) (LP 648)

Icehouse  Primitive Man (CD, Warner Music, 1982) ***

Genre: Australian pop/rock

Places I remember: The Warehouse Cambridge

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles/ Gear costume: Great Southern Land

Active compensatory factors: I bought this for the featured track: Great Southern Land is a great slice of Australian synthpop. 

The band was huge in NZ and Aussie in the early eighties with songs like Street Cafe and Hey Little Girl all over our radio at the time.

Being something of a musical snob at the time, I didn't rush out to buy this but thanks to that lingering appeal of Great Southern Land. I did catch up with it when it was remastered in 2002 and released with a slew of bonus tracks.

Where do they all belong? My only brush with Iva and Icehouse.