Mexican Funk Rock Band, Ikkarus, Take Flight

If you thought Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson was the only rock star balancing his musical career with that of an airline pilot, you’d be sadly mistaken. Javier Lardizábal took to the skies first in Santiago, Chile, then in his homeland of Mexico, all the while spending any available time writing and demoing songs himself in the studio. After nearly ten years of developing the tracks, he found his musical family in the form of Dave Ramos (drums) and Wens Castellanos García (keyboards), Javier himself taking on guitar and vocal duties. Ikkarus is the end result, a relentlessly funky slab of alternative rock which, though it touches on the sounds of the 90s Seattle music scene, has an energy and emotion entirely of its own.

Watch a stunning live rendition of Hanky Fanky here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLSVXsok8LU

Though “Stains & Echoes” is fired by a bass sound which immediately brings to mind prime Red Hot Chili Peppers, it is the layers of sound which continually draw you back for repeated listening: Javier’s vocals having the drawled harmonics of Layne Staley; the tremulous tones of Eddie Vedder, as well as the lung-stretching power of Chester Bennington. With the addition of whip-crack drumming and washes of atmospheric keyboards, the tracks are full of light and shade – verse-chorus-verse is replaced by attack-stun-hypnotise.

With the confidence and musicianship to feature the stunning instrumental track, “The Messenger”, alongside the punk attack of “01800”, Ikkarus is a band which is armed to the teeth to take on the world from Mexico City. Any rock band who has yet to come up with a line as ingenious as, “My cannibalism-raised-metabolism” is invited to sit back, listen, and pick their jaws up off the floor.