LP
Crumb Records (2021)
Crumb’s second album, Ice Melt, takes its name from the coarse blend of salts
that you can buy from your local hardware store for $9.99. When sprinkled on
your wintry steps, this mixture absorbs water and gives off heat, transforming
the ice into a viscous, briney slush and, eventually, nothing at all. Beginning
with the dynamic chaos of “Up & Down,” and ending with Crumb’s closest thing
to a lullaby, Ice Melt’s ten tracks combine, like ice sculptures melting into a
glistening puddle.
From the start, the group knew that cohesion was best achieved through
plumbing their individual strengths— frontwoman Lila Ramani’s earliest
songwriting, which catalyzed the group’s first two EPs; Bri Aronow’s knack for
building (dis)affecting soundscapes; the hypnotic grounding of Jonathan Gilad’s
drums, a Crumb mainstay; and Jesse Brotter’s distinctive bass playing, which
subtly traces Ramani’s vocal melodies while providing an unrelenting pulse.
These collective skills make Crumb a project of independent self-discovery,
four creative minds converging around an idea that is always shifting and
reforming.
Convening in Los Angeles to work with producer Jonathan Rado, Crumb
tapped into atmosphere-creation like never before, building experimental
compositions that are at turns head-nodding and surrealist, energetic and
euphoric. Ramani characterizes the album as a “return back down to earth,” a
deeply felt examination of “real substances and beings that live on this planet.”
It is also the cultivation of road-worn musicians exploring brand-new sounds
and thematic concepts, pushing themselves into territory they could never have anticipated five years ago.