Shutdown - Icarus

Just to get this out of the way, this is not the same band that is from New York and has released some records on Victory in the past. In fact, I sadly don’t know a whole lot about this Shutdown other than the basics. I do know that in their earlier stages they were a hardcore band from the UK however progressively ventured further towards a more melodic post-hardcore/emo sound. The band released the pictured album Icarus around 1996 on Golf Records. Shutdown might have already been defunct by that point; if they weren’t then they didn’t last much longer after this release. As far as I know they also had a self-titled 12’’ on Off the Disk records released in 1991 and one other album on Golf that I have absolutely no clue of its whereabouts, title, or year of release. If any of the readers out there know anything to help fill in the gaps for Shutdown, then by all means leave a comment or two. It would be very much appreciated. One other notable item is that the UK based label Boss Tuneage released a compilation of non album material a few years ago spanning the years 1990-1995, and that is still widely available.

As for Icarus, compared to the bands earlier material it still has a strong influence from late eighties/early nineties hardcore however by this point the band was more in line to comparables like Quicksand and earlier Shift. In fact the production and guitar tone on Icarus reminds me a lot of the latter. But anyway, this is definitely worth taking a look at.

Update: Reader Pete from the UK sent me a very informative e-mail about the band a day after this was posted, here is what he had to say...

"You're right about Icarus... it came out very late 96 if memory serves but
the group disbanded mid-late 97. I'm still unsure on the reasons, wasn't like a
major thing just a natural ending. Icarus was barely promoted to the extent you'd
hardly know it existed. Plastichead distribution who ran Golf were pretty slack to
say the least. They put more energy into the other Golf bands (mostly pop
punk/rubbish hardcore). The other Shutdown album you know nothing about was called
'Emits a Real Bronx Cheer' & although it has no date on it I'm certain is was
released in early 95? I listened to all their output last year & decided this album
was their high point. Its a perfect blend of uptempo melodic h/c with the DC
influence & their 'post h/c' tendencies."

Many thanks to Pete for helping out!

Shutdown – Kerbdrill [MP3]
Shutdown – Beacon [MP3]

Despite its import status, there are still copies of Icarus floating around on Amazon, Ebay, etc. I imagine for those that live in the UK that the album is pretty easy to find. Also, be sure to check out Boss Tuneage for the earlier mentioned retrospective of their non album material.