by Zach Noel (@zachanoel)
Try to describe the sound of Brooklyn indie psych-pop band Crumb and you’ll find it’s pretty tough. Words like “vibey,” “trippy,” “dreamy,” “ethereal,” come to mind. You wouldn’t be wrong as Crumb’s somnambulant fusion of hazy, psychedelic-pop and groove-heavy indie R&B is a slippery description itself, its sound as elusive and as much an exercise in contemporary genre fluidity that you’ll find bands exercising in the streaming age. However, it’s that musical dexterity on their earliest releases that made it possible for their music to make as much sense alongside their fellow neo-psychedelic contemporaries. Their first two EPs, Crumb and Locket, along with their debut album Jinx introduced a band that gravitated to fluid grooves, surreal atmospheres, keyboards, lush guitars, alongside Lila Ramani’s dreamy vocals about the feelings and concerns of existential nightmares. On Crumb’s sophomore album, the aptly-titled Ice Melt, the band finds itself entering the ears of listeners whose relationship with time and how it is spent has been dramatically altered due to the past year. Ice Melt’s title could not feel more appropriate, it comes at perfect timing. Listening to it, it’s almost (much like the substance it’s named after) like the songs grow and expand considerably, but over time start to melt and eventually evaporate as you listen.
Recorded to two-inch tape in Los Angeles by former Foxygen band member-turned producer Jonathan Rado (Father John Misty, Weyes Blood, The Lemon Twigs) and Crumb’s engineer Michael Harris, Ice Melt adds even more depth to the production and sound than their spartan debut Jinx suggested. Rado’s taste for all things vintage as well as a shared love with Crumb in crafting instrumentally dense, yet sonically-rich arrangements suits the band quite well, with a greater emphasis on atmosphere and studio-as-instrument experimentation at play. Pitch-shifted vocals, tape manipulation, and retro keyboard instruments such as Mellotron, clavinet, harpsichord, organ, and celeste all add more color and depth to their already kaleidoscopic sound. The overall production puts an even larger spotlight on what the band has begun to excel at: deeper head-bob friendly grooves with added fidelity. A harder-hitting sound grounds the band as the vibes get farther out. The tight and precise playing of their rhythm section really gets to shine between bassist Jesse Brotter and drummer Jonathan Gilad. Ramani’s textured but purposeful guitar playing, as well as her intoxicating lullaby vocals, continue to lend the music an ethereal and surreal feeling. All these elements highlight and strengthen the band’s experimental, but contemporary approach to pop music on Ice Melt.
There’s a greater influence of dancefloor-ready grooves on tracks such as the four-on-the-floor beat of “Balloon,” the galloping sprint of opener “Up & Down” (which grinds to a dramatic halt, removing the song’s scaffolding and leaving only reversed drum beats, Lila’s lone distorted and pitch-shifted vocal, an eerie keyboard-sound, and a blown-out bass sound), and the Motown shuffle of “Retreat!” Their approach to dance music creates an effect like that of psych-pop projects Tame Impala and Unknown Mortal Orchestra: body music for the head; an existential disco, introverted dance music. Single “BNR” glides along like some gelatinous blob of sound that continues to stretch and mold, swallowing everything in its path, as Ramani muses on the image of “black and red,” comparing it to images such as “strawberry seeds,” the “shoes on [her] feet,” and how it colors and affects everything around her, going as far as stating its “[her] disease.”
Tracks like “Seeds” and “Gone” are the sort of dreamy, percussive-heavy psych-pop songs with retro mechanistic keyboard tones that wouldn’t be out of place on Broadcast’s early records, thanks to the added addition of acoustic guitar and harpsichord. First single “Trophy” is the type of mid-tempo psychedelic soul that BADBADNOTGOOD have made their calling card, but made even hazier with a chorus that features saturated vocals and guitar, sung and played in unison where you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. “Tunnel (all that you had)” features a melody that skirts the aquatic melodic surface of watery keyboards, an electric sitar, an insistent drumbeat, a buoyant bass line, a tinny keyboard part, and the introduction of a toy piano. Crumb really brings it though when they break with the main melody, and a fuzzy guitar part builds on the piano part. While the drums increase in intensity and the band grows louder and more saturated, it is ultimately indiscernible as the song expands, swallowing the listener in sound before fading out and segueing into the closing title track.
Crumb don’t change their sound on Ice Melt, rather they continue to hone the elements that make it work and what made their music a welcome discovery, bringing them to a place where it’s fine-tuned, harder-hitting, and ultimately more grounded. Though as a complete listen it’s short, its songs are so jammed with dense arrangements and sonic ear candy that it will keep your attention. Giving each song its own musical identity, it bests their debut, by offering a sound and production that further complements their tight playing.