Album Review: CMD – Ice Daggers EP
By Cheez Wiz
With Ice Daggers EP, I’d like you to take yourself back a few months to the death-freeze of February in Montreal. If you’re elsewhere, imagine it’s really cold.
But you’ve just gotten inside, maybe you’re at home, or maybe you’re at the function. Wherever you are, the most crucial thing is (I’m writing a review here!): CMD’s Ice Daggers EP is playing.
With the first track ‘Ice Daggers’ on, you’re still shaking off the fact that you almost just fell and broke your juicy bottom like 69 times out there. The dark chords are wobbling as the kick bangs your head. Your damn boot won’t just slip off, you have to untie them first. UGH. You struggle for about a minute, and finally you push out into the comfort of free moving air surrounding your socked foot. Just as this happens, CMD lays in a sneaky bass line that you feel right under your soul, just dancing there. Beneath you. Closing your eyes, you’re now floating on the ice instead of slipping on it. You’re dodging gracefully all of the icicles as they fall to the ground, striking shaky hi-hats. An angelic electronic synth I will call C sings to you for a quick second and disappears in a flit. Replacing C, the ice daggers return. C returns and floats you away from dangers until all thats left is a gentle high-hat and then just a wobble.
‘Sea Glass’ comes on and the synths bobble you around until you’re floating. You’re dancing, but you’re floating freely. Lifted, an omnipresent drone wiggles into your ears until you are consumed by its flange. The kick opts out from the 4 on the floor and instead bounces around with the synth cherubs, eventually replacing them for a while, but you don’t notice. You’re still stuck in the drone. You wake up to some hi hats, the drone is gone and the synths have returned. But wait. You can’t possibly be feeling this good. You’re feeling really good. Something about those synths is really bringing you up. Then you think, “Has the droning ever left? Or am I just tuning in and out of the universe’s vibrational pulse, simultaneously being consumed by it and also obscuring it into silence?”. “I need some hot cocoa and a foot massage,” you respond to yourself.
So you go lay down into the ‘River Bed.’ You’re comforted by the low frequencies passing along your back. Staring into the sky, a scene appears amongst my butts with a cautious announcement by way of synth riff. Repeating itself over and over, getting louder, you’re waiting for what’s to come. Eventually it says something different, but you were too entranced by its earlier message to hear anything else. The whole scene is receding back into your periphery now. Gone, the synths have left you feeling restless, and the river’s vibrations jolt you. You sit up with wide eyes, staring into the darkness until, in silence, you dematerialize into the wispy fog surrounding your environment.
CMD is adventurous in her composing, and her Ice Daggers EP is no different. It had me wanting to dance and wanting to fall into bed with some headphones on at the same damn time. Although it was short it was definitely a great ride.
