- Much is often made of Ikonika's female presence in the male-dominated bass music world, but what she really brings to the party is not so much some spurious "feminine touch" but an effervescence and sly humour lacking in some of her more under heavy manners peers. That's immediately evident on the title track here, whose glassy, zig-zag bass judders to a halt with a self-deprecating vocal "ahem." It's there too on the closing, the majestic "PR812," which references one Reginald Chua's frankly comical attempt, back in 2000, to hijack a Philippine airline flight. Trying to escape the plane with the passengers' valuables using a makeshift parachute with a length of curtain for a ripcord, Mr Chua panicked at the door until pushed out by a flight attendant, falling to his death. Ikonika gravely salutes his untimely demise with an arrangement of shifting percussion and pearl string electronics.
All great fun, then, I Make Lists. Those familiar with the incisive vivacity of Ikonika's live sets will be nodding, twitching and smiling in recognition here. Whether it's the Latino bells and faintly Kraftwerkian vocal tinges of "Catch Vibes," the bass bubbling like black tar, the shimmering, stalactite synths that spiral through "Cold Soaking" and dominate the EP as a whole, the sprightly, cosmic march of "With Your Mouth" or the steely, stabbing, acidic "Take Pictures," Ikonika never falls into easy, anthemic patterns or predictable drops. The sound scenery is constantly shifting, the rhythm never settling, the melodies mazy and averse to repetition.
Tracklist 01. I Make Lists
02. Take Pictures
03. Catch Vibes