IQU with Miranda July
Girls on Dates
K Records
Release Date: August 1999
What is IQU? While signed to K records, this is not your usual indie fare. The band structure may hold to the usual guitar/bass/keyboards rock band paradigm, but the ominous lack of a drummer and the use of turntables, samples, theremin, loops and effects will forever keep them from ever being described as rock. Include these with their penchant for odd song structure, and one comes to a fabulously convoluted view of what this trio is doing.
What IQU does is plot their own musical path. Actually, with their latest release, Girls on Dates (K), they have in fact reached another turn in their journey of innovation. This EP includes the odd aural textures unique to the IQU sound, but added here is a new dimension by collaborating with Portland, Oregon's experimental performance and spoken word artist, Miranda July. IQU's sound is genuinely perplexing and compelling on its own, but with this new artistic venture, a new level of confusion is reached.
Although this release contains only four individual tracks, including two remixes, the EP is definitely worth the time. The title track's storytelling and "Kida Co-Coma"'s dialogue between the best friend and the mother of a comatosed girl immediately demand second and third listens. While these narratives are not easily followed, their merit is not to be ignored. "Kida Co-Coma" presents a moving and sad scenario without ever sinking to an obviously emotional level. "Girls on Dates" avoids almost any linear narrative, but presents its momologues and scenes with completely ingenuity.
But what makes Girls on Dates so compelling is the music. While Miranda July does bring a new spin on the IQU sound, it is the pastiche of sounds that makes this record so compelling. Never succumbing to what either a rock band or an electronic act should sound like, IQU draws from both genres to compose multi-layered experiments in sound that are rich in both texture and imagination. The heavily dub-influenced remix of the title track by IQU frontman K.O., succeeds as much as the original version's syncopated drum and bass climax. Similarly, DJ Swiggs Mix of "Kida Co-Coma" extracts just enough of the original's lyrics to provide a tighter and moodier track. Like many electronic acts, the remixes are were IQU truly shines.
But never let it be said that the electronic arena is the only place IQU belongs. This band is uncompromising in its originality and its demand that it be left undefined. IQU is alone in its world, but it is beautiful to be allowed to see what truly forward minds are thinking.
-- Miguel Banuelos
banuelos@outersound.com
