Deeply Armed / Black Ice / Echo Pet Recordings

Belfast’s Deeply Armed’s “Black Ice” is an obsessive, obsidian love song. Delivered by Micheal McKeown with menaces that mirror The Stone Rose’s Ian Brown. Accompanied by Kenny Whaley’s bad ass bass riffing, Saul Rayson’s slow, rolling, funky drumming, Aaron O’Neill’s tumbling bleep breakdowns and soulful backing from Marion Jordan, whose contributions, by turns, call to mind Denise Johnston, Merry Clayton and Clare Torry. For the first of 2 remixes Andrew Fearn, of Sleaford Mods, adopts his Extndntwrk alias and ramps the tempo right up. Swapping Rayson’s traps for a rattling, rocketing machine. Resulting in some racing post-punk rock (sorta similar to Andrew Weatherall and Steve Boardman’s work on groups such as Battant). A leftfield dancer, stuttered, staccato, with snippets of the chorus. Jittery. With gated ghosts of Jordan’s backing. Locked in a hypnotic groove. Mad Professor’s dub then has the low end, distorted, rumbling, while the vocals are limited to delay drenched washes.…