ICEHOUSE's IVA DAVIES

There are lots of Australian bands I love. Among them: Pseudo Echo, The Church, Crowded House, Men at Work, and my favorite, Icehouse. They are mostly known for their hits “Crazy” and “Electric Blue”. However, the band has much more to offer than those songs. There have been numerous changes in the band’s line-up and the only constant would be its founder, Iva Davies. Aside from being the singer and songwriter of the band, he's also a record producer and plays guitar, bass, keyboards and oboe. He was a former oboe and composition student at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music. That’s why I consider the man a genius in crafting his music as he fuses classical with modern instruments to come up with a masterpiece. A remix of their classic hit “Crazy” called the Midnight Mix would be an example of this. Iva has been involved with the Sydney Dance Company’s ballet productions -- “Boxes” in the mid-80s, and “Berlin” in the ‘90s. “The Berlin Tapes” was released under the name of Iva Davies and Icehouse in 1995 containing a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes”. The Berlin Mix of the song is a great effort that deserves a listen for every Icehouse and/or Bowie fan. Then on New Year’s Eve in 1999, Icehouse was featured at an outdoor concert near Sydney Harbour where they sang the Millennium version of their classic hit “Great Southern Land”(a song that has been considered by many Aussies as an unofficial anthem of the land down under). The version heightened Iva’s amazing voice and included more of strings arrangement over the known synthesizer-laden track with less of the drumbeats from the original. But there was the beat of pounding jungle drums towards the end of this great song.

Additional trivia from Wikipedia : Iva Davies collaborated with Christopher Gordon and Richard Tognetti to record the soundtrack score for the film “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” which starred Oscar winner, Russel Crowe. They won an award for “Best Soundtrack Album” category of the APRA/AGSC Screen Music Awards.

Now, to appreciate the great orchestrations of Iva Davies, here are three tracks for you to download. Enjoy.

Icehouse – Crazy (Midnight Mix)

Iva Davies and Icehouse – Heroes (The Berlin Mix)

Iva Davies – Great Southern Land (Millennium Version)

Check out and shop for Iva Davies CD's at (just click the icons):

Watch Icehouse :

Icehouse performing "Heroes" Live