#013 I \ D – Assimilate and Spit Fire. Destroy!

Her ray gun eyes whispered, 'Hello'...

Already gaining notoriety on sleazy Internet forums for its risqué cover art, I \ D‘s second album, Midnight Hot, is the five-piece band’s tribute to the improvised activities that take place on the backlanes of Geylang, Desker and even the old Keong Saik and historic Bugis in our own SIN City. Track 2, “Hot boy” is, pants down, the standout song: spearheaded by bassist Ian Woo’s rubber runs, the whole band gets deep, deep into the groovey to score with its forward thrust action — but what I really want to talk about is the preceding song. If “Hot boy” provides the album’s climax, the track it grows out from–“Assimilate and spit fire. Destroy!”–is all about the foreplay. Beginning as a moody urban sprawl with the desperate sowing of wild notes, the song is a wonderful display of the hearty cosmopolitanism that Singaporeans are known for, channelling the wail and sleeze of ’80s’ Downtown New York, before settling into a serious Krautrock grind. But, of course, Cosmopolitanism is what Singapore does best right?- Especially the happy United Nations that greet every hot boy on the even-numbered Lorongs on Geylang. Trust the boys from I \ D to teach the rest of us about the pleasure principle.

Listen: I \ D – Assimilate and Spit Fire. Destroy! (from Midnight Hot, self-released, 2009)