CD Review: IKE’S WASTED WORLD self-titled (Independent) by Dave Wolff

IKE’S WASTED WORLD

Ike’s Wasted World

Independent

Ike’s Wasted World is the brainchild and solo project of upstate New Yorker Ike Joseph, also involved in Lost Breed, Cardiac Noose, Blind Legion, Blackjack Blades, Black Juju and The Vengeance Brothers. Little information is available on the net except for a Youtube profile with promotional videos of seven of the ten tracks recorded for this project’s debut full length.

From what I gather, the material and promotional videos were produced by Tim Lynch at The Recording Company in upstate New York. Researching his studio I read Lynch is a musician and producer with an extensive resume including independent label collaborations, soundtrack work for cable TV programs and more than 3000 performances. His experience does much to polish and streamline these compositions, which is obvious from the opening guitars of Key Of Satan.

With its Circus-Of-Power-meets-Metallica theme, it takes you from Los Angeles, California to the Nile in northeast Africa to the Orient, establishing a sense of wanderlust that would have made a lasting impression on Kerouac. The following songs begin to suggest this journey from country to country is more of a search for something that seems to elude the traveler at every stop somehow. Whether it’s something in the physical world he is searching for or something more spiritual, there is a sense of something missing underlying the songs, particularly Speed Queen and Dreams Of Atlantis.

The longing to find the elusive desire becomes increasingly palpable as the latter song progresses, speaking of going in circles and finding oneself back where he started at the beginning and having to undertake the search again. The roads and highways traveled somehow seem empty, reflecting the isolation conveyed there. Diamondbacks sounds more uplifting after this, teeming with the energy of your surroundings in Mexico and the unknown perils you might find along the way as you accompany the band further on this trip.

Back Alleys And Highrises gives you a contrast between the fabled big city and the less affluent areas to be found close by, and the band's cover of Larry Wallis' Leather Forever takes a brighter turn, stating the journey must continue as something has to be found at the end sooner or later. The CD ends with a cover of Motorhead's I Ain't No Nice Guy. -Dave Wolff

Track list:

1. Key Of Satan

2. Love, Freedom & Pain

3. Tree Fox

4. Speed Queen

5. Dreams Of Atlantis

6. Teenage Head

7. Diamondbacks

8. Back Alleys And Highrises

9. Leather Forever

10. Ain’t No Nice Guy