Test Icicles - 'Dig Your Own Grave EP' (Domino) Released 24/04/06

After a whirlwind twelve months the end for Test Icicles is finally here. Having played their black balloon festooned ultimate gig at London’s Astoria, the band duly bow out by rewarding their diminutive yet devoted fanbase with this nine track ‘EP’ – oh, with a bonus DVD thrown in for good measure. Cheers lads. Okay so ‘Dig Your Own Grave’ is not a plethora of fresh material, mostly consisting of ‘slight’ re-workings of album tracks and stuff dredged up from the archives, yet there’s easily enough here to satisfy the hardened fan.

Visceral openers ‘Pull The Lever’ (in its rugged ‘Raaary Ripmix’) and the extended version of ‘Your Biggest Mistake’ both differ vaguely from the originals, yet serve as pertinent reminders of just why Test Icicles excited us in the first place. Later, the unreleased and bloody great ‘Stuck In the Bend’ is archetypally racy, anarchic and full of unhinged guitar effects and erratic vocals. Then the fantastically named demo ‘The Plague and Pestilence’ hits us - armed with a brutal scuzzy bass line and plenty of unadulterated snarl. Great stuff. After some electronic reworkings (the Chromehoof take on 'Circle Square Triangle' standing out), the EP bows out with two chaotic demos ‘What’s Michelle Like?’ and ‘Who Ate All The Offal?’ which are so raw and jagged they boarder on the unlistenable – aptly hitting home why Tests Icicles are such love/hate figures. We’ll miss you boys.