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ice minus
 Ice
Minus are no newcomers on the scene although you might be forgiven
for thinking so. Their profile has been significantly boosted
over the last twelve months thanks to the string of great releases
on their Ice Minus imprint (founded late 2001) and the Knowledge
CD they mixed in conjunction with clothing company THTC. Their
dubs have featured in sets of discerning deejays such as Bailey,
Ed Rush, Storm, Decoder, Technical Itch and Dieselboy –
to give you a clue to their no nonsense style.
The Ice Minus story originally started some six
years ago. Four members - Bart Icus, Joe Publick, Chris Maxey
and Marc Smith were then known as Served Chilled. A handful of
white labels surfaced before Carl Collins quickly signed them
to the Hard Leaders label in 1997. The Hardleaders debut ‘Jaquera’
featured at first on a compilation, ‘The Way Out Chapter’,
then was released as a twelve backed with ‘Airborne’.
A good relationship had now been struck with Hard Leaders which
lead to more of their tunes being released on subsequent compilations
for the label. The Served Chilled sound had now found itself by
the time of the third compilation. That was futuristic, experimental,
with serious intent stamped all over it.
 Come
1998 and Bart would share a house with Mark Caro, better known
as Technical Itch. This naturally lead to time spent in the studio
together and saw the two release a spell of tracks under the pseudonym
Biostacis on the Tech Itch record label. Soon after the Served
Chilled quartet geared up for the debut extended player release
on Hard Leaders. It was around this time that the four opted to
make an amicable split and each put forward a solo piece for the
‘Red Fish’ EP. Bart and Joe retained the Served Chilled
and newly found Ice Minus guises. It was tipped that the Served
Chilled alias has been left open for the future, possibly for
more down tempo, breakbeat and ambient adventures.
Ice Minus currently comprise of Bart with latest
team members Julian Ayton and Kieren Lomax who went on to forge
links with Moving Shadow producing tracks for their Audio Couture
imprint as well as last summer’s massive ‘Drowning’
on Shadow. Debut release on their own label was ‘Break The
Ice’ b/w ‘Angel’ (the latter featuring Kosheen
producer Decoder). Julian and Kieren first gained notoriety in
Bristol for their displays on the ones and twos at local jungle
parties Apex and Ruffneck Ting as Ayton and Kire-1. Julian bumped
into Bart whilst studying a music tech course at a local college
and struck a friendship and mutual desire to take music making
seriously.
 The
three are all now sharing a house together on the outskirts of
Bristol with the front room converted to a dynamic studio. It
is also the same household that Mark Caro from Technical Itch
first asked Bart to move into some years before. Ice Minus release
number two was a relentless and thundering tune in the form of
‘Babylon’ that managed to turn a few heads and helped
raise the Ice Minus profile. The crew cite Bailey as a main player
for starting the request ball rolling for their tunes. They too
acknowledge that even though they have regularly kept all the
top flight jocks flushed with their material it can often come
down to just that one person setting off the influx of demand.
Next episode of the Ice Minus saga is available
right now - ‘Broad-Band’ & ‘AD2002’,
then a little while after that watch out for ‘Spidermite’
& ‘Bango Manchi Co’. You can also check Bart,
Julian and Kieren giving a generous offering of studio tips and
techniques in each and every Knowledge and keep an eye out for
the soon to be online www.iceminus.co.uk.
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