Various - Classic Rave 2

Moonshine Music: 2000

It was the Year 2000, and the first nostalgic pangs of rave's early years was hitting everyone's memory membranes. Or Moonshine was just looking for another genre to corner in their relentless output of compilations and DJ mixes. Perhaps both, though probably more the latter.

For sure there would always be some reason for some label to trot out another round of licence-friendly 'classics', but there wasn't a super-high demand for it either. Rather, such discs were more for the impulse buyer, a dude or dudette glancing over a track list, recognizing a tune or three they didn't already have, and going from there. For the record, the tunes in my case were Orbital's Chime, Felix's Don't You Want Me, and The Good Men's Give It Up. No shame.

I can't deny my recollection of just how pervasive 'classic rave' CDs had become by the turn of the century is hazy – I'd imagine more so in the UK than anywhere in the Americas. And to be fair, Moonshine's Classic Rave series wasn't specifically meant to be just about old-school hardcore. Rather, a whole run of Classic [Genre] was planned, kicking off not just with a Classic Rave, but a Classic Acid too (oh look, three Hardfloor tracks you already got!). Unfortunately, the Electronic Music Classics run sputtered before it really got started, this Classic Rave 2 thrown out with little fanfare before the series folded. Going by the selection of tracks on here, it's easy to see why.

Like I said, I got this mainly for three out of the eleven tracks, which is a fair when paying used shop prices for a CD. Give It Up has always been a guilty pleasure, and Chime is Chime. D'at Felix track though, one of the earliest examples of Rollo's penchant for big synth chord anthems, and steering Hooj Choons down the prog-house road we all love and adore (well, some did). Others I'd heard about, but hadn't heard yet, so figured Classic Rave 2 a handy pick-me-up for a knowledge drop. Let's go over those tracks now!

2 Bad Mice's Bombscare: definitely an important record in establishing Moving Shadow's footprint in the proto-jungle scene, but I've heard better. Acen's Close Your Eyes: definitely on that 'Prodigy: Phase 1' tip, but I prefer Trip II The Moon. X-Press 2's London X-Press: wow, they were able to sustain a career into the new century with this run-of-the-mill slice of New York house? N-Joi's Anthem: alright piano house with some nice string-pads, but Papillon's better. Also, what are house tracks doing on a rave compilation?

As if that wasn't enough to convince Classic Rave 2 was a slapdash afterthought from Moonshine, the chemical breaks of Electronliners' Loose Caboose and big-beat of Basco's The Beat Is Over fills out the rest. Yes, two cuts that have almost nothing to do with 'classics' or 'rave', and weren't even half a decade old yet. What, couldn't get any Praga Khan up in this warehouse?

Pet Shop Boys - Introspective

Parlaphone: 1988/2018

It's no secret Pet Shop Boys' success had as much to do with appealing to club culture as it was cranking out the radio hits. For their first couple LPs though, there was a clear separation of the two, the albums-proper containing the regular songs, and the EPs, singles, and dance compilations providing the extended disco versions of the hits. Which is how it was always done, or at least since the advent of the 12” records pressed specifically for DJ use. People at home ain't got time for pop tunes that don't wrap up in three-to-four minutes, while them crazies in the club just want that beat to keep going on an' on an' on an' on an'...

It was astoundingly audacious, then, for Misters Lowe and Tennant to craft an album so wholeheartedly embracing club culture while defiantly bucking the standards of pop music. There's only six tracks on Introspective, which under normal circumstances would be enough for an EP. Ah, but these are long songs, some peaking out at over nine minutes in length – the shortest, I Want A Dog, runs at six-fifteen minutes. By comparison, their longest prior LP song was One More Chance, clocking in at five twenty-eight. And as if getting Chicago house legend Frankie Knuckles in the studio with them wasn't clear enough Pet Shop Boys were all-in with this direction, they even released Introspective with a triple-vinyl option in its first run for maximum DJing efficiency.

It wasn't just Chicago house the lads from London were cribbing from. Freestyle was pretty big in the Latin clubbing areas of America too, and Domino Dancing offers nods to that genre's biggest sonic signifiers: the broken beat, and the orchestral hit. Speaking of the latter, the chap often credited with creating that distinct sound, Trevor Horn, offers his production on a couple tracks too. And hoo, can you tell, Left To My Own Devices and It's Alright featuring the sort of expansive studio work more befitting a big Broadway show than anything for an underground rinse-out (a full-on choir!). It almost makes the simple Knuckles groove of I Want A Dog quaint in comparison, but even he received quite the spit-shine compared to the rough stuff he released through Trax around the same time. No doubt having big studio bucks behind you can do wonders for the final result, and Pet Shop Boys were big clout havers indeed.

The songs themselves, while not as instantly identifiable as their early hits, are still effective in turning a worm in your ear. The topics range from their usual interpersonal observational material, to the mundane (he really wants that dog), all the way to the Big Picture. Like, after all the shit that went down in the '80s, it's has to be alright after, so long as we have dance music providing us with comfort. Oh, sweetie, if you only knew of the macabre and perverse sounds soon to emerge from clubland.

ACE TRACKS: August 2013

Huh. Spotify’s gone a little screwy after downloading one of their updates. Despite registering ~14,400 songs, my Local Files no longer show. Meh, serves me right for figuring a newer version of a Desktop app would somehow be better. There’ve been a few minor features that disappeared lately, though nothing as inconveniencing as this. I suppose it doesn’t make too much difference since most y’all couldn’t hear the missing tracks anyway. For a short Playlist such as AUGUST 2013’s, however, even having those songs in a track list would help some. Guess I’ll add them in whenever Spotify sorts their shit out.


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - High Karate
DJ John Kelley - High Desert Soundsystem
DJ John Kelley - High Desert Soundsystem 2 Various - Dirty Vegas: Homelands 2002 Preview
Various - Helsinki Mix Sessions: Jori Hulkkonen
William Orbit - Hello Waveforms
Various - Heroes! Rewind!!

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Daft Punk - Alive (how’d the end come so soon!?)

Vacation time already resulted in a lean month for reviews, but with half the albums covered not even available on Spotify makes for one very, very short Playlist. Remarkably, almost everything that made it is house music, and a rather specific sort at that. It’s like Frankie Knuckles, Daft Punk, and Hercules & Love Affair are kindred spirits in alphabetical coincidences. Even the tougher tech-trance from L.S.G., Trancesetters, and Jan Driver don’t sound out of place.

What obviously will though is that Hits Unlimited CD from 2 Unlimited. It seems Spotify finally has a version of the group’s greatest hits package available, so I’ve lumped it all at the end of the Playlist like the fanboy I am. There were also current remixes on it too, from the likes of Steve Aoki, Big Dawg, and Joachim Garraud. Naturally, I jettisoned them to the bin. Why make you suffer more than necessary?

ACE TRACKS: February 2015

Oh man, did I just wake up from the most epic of naps after work. You go down, thinking “One hour should suffice.” Then you wake up three or four hours later, and realize your evening is shot, so you shuffle over and sleep a little longer. Then it’s midnight, and you realize you have to work at six in the morning, so you shuffle over and sleep a little longer. Then you wake up at two in the morning, and you realize you can sleep a little longer, so you shuffle over and sleep a little longer. Then your alarm goes off, and you realize you’ve slept for EVER, and you shuffle over and OH WAIT, I GOTTA’ GET THIS PLAYLIST UPLOADED THIS MORNING! Here we go then, ACE TRACKS of February 2015.


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - Radikal Techno
Various - Radikal Techno: Too Radikal

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 12%
Most “WTF?” Track: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - T-Bone (how is this song still going!?)

I should mention that, technically Rave-Trance 2001 isn’t on Spotify, but one of the CDs it was ripped from, This Is Dream Trance Anthems Vol. 2, is available. So if you want to know how that one sounds like, yay for you! But yeah, no surprise those old Quality compilations aren’t about, and of course I’d go and give ACE TRACK status to hard-to-find remixes.

Multi-disc compilations and general distractions didn’t leave me as much time for music listening and reviewing this past February, giving us a shorter Playlist than usual. There’s some Ultimae (and Altar!), there’s some trance, there’s some downtempo-dub, and there’s a couple outlier oddities. A few new musics, a few old musics, and a lot of in between. Nothing too off the beaten path where my general tastes are concerned, then.

Moby - Last Night (Original TC Review)

Mute: 2008

(2013 Update:
Not much to add to this review, as it holds up just as fine as it did when it first came out, though calling it "his most accomplished album since Everything Is Wrong" is a bit of a stretch on my part. Kind of a shame this was just a one-off return to early club music on Moby's part, but it was only ever intended to be as such. I wonder if we might see another one though, what with classic house again back in vogue after a couple-year gap of not. Man, was 2008 ever a weird year for house music.)


IN BRIEF: The Moby ravers enjoyed returns.

I don’t think anyone expected Moby returning to dance music in such a fashion, if at all. Granted, he tested the waters a few years back with a Voodoo Child album, but for the most part everyone figured Mr. Hall’s most recognizable project had forever gone the way of quaint bittersweet pop-rock. Still, it’s not like the mainstream readily accepted Moby. Although they enjoyed the music off Play (if anything because you couldn’t escape it) and the odd tune here and there if it fit the times, Moby remained the butt-end of numerous jokes, an all-too easy target of ridicule.

Perhaps it isn’t surprising, then, that as he nears mid-life, Moby has begun reflecting, recalling a time and place one was accepted no matter who you were or what you did. The second Summer Of Love certainly was such a time, and thanks to anthems such as Go and Next Is The E, Mr. Hall emerged as an underground darling of the early American rave scene. So if such fond thoughts have been on his mind lately, producing an album which captures those free-wheeling hedonistic years in sixty-five minutes is an intriguing idea; the fact this comes at a point when classic house music is seeing something of a revival just so happens to be a bonus for both parties.

Still, there have already been plenty of question marks, accusations and critical responses to such an endeavor. Cynically, you have to wonder why Moby would go back to a sound he hasn’t touched on in over a decade, especially when his last Best Of release ignored nearly all of his pre-Play output. Also, will his current fanbase even be willing to accept such blatant romanticizing of early ‘90s dance music when it hasn’t been in vogue since Madonna’s Vogue? And does Moby even have much chance of standing toe-to-toe with admittedly much trendier revivalists like Hercules & Love Affair or Dixon?

Last Night will probably fly right over your head if you’ve been fussing over such thoughts. On this new album, Moby doesn’t seem to care whether the popular press or the bloggers or even the current crop of EDM followers accept his retro-direction; it’s primarily the old-schoolers whom enjoyed his early output that will dig on this. As much as he says this is a love-letter to New York City of the late 80s, Last Night is equally a love-letter to all those fans that gave Mr. Hall his big break, with the giddy rave vibes oozing from every sonic corner.

Were I allowed to wear my Nostalgia Headphones while reviewing Last Night, it’d easily earn high marks. Even without them, though, there is some gosh-darned good music to be had on here. Take Everyday Is 1989: it’s an incredibly simple track on paper, consisting of rolling pianos, soul-sista’ samples, and string stabs looping over vintage house beats. It should sound old, it should sound dated, it should sound like a bygone relic. Yet every time those pianos emerge - and I do mean every time - my head can’t help but bobble along. There’s a groove to be had here, my friends, and it’s more infectious than most of what’s come out from the house camps in the last few years.

Much of Last Nights works in this regard. Moby keeps things simple and to the point, doesn’t get bogged down in fancy gimmicks or overproduction, and maintains the old-school uplifting spirit throughout much of the album. And while the house cuts like Everyday Is 1989, Disco Lies, and I’m In Love received most of the pre-album buzz, there’s plenty of other EDM genres dabbled in as well. The Stars and 257.Zero tackles the rave end of the spectrum, while I Love To Move In Here adds some hip-house flavor. The latter portion of the album provides an ambient-house touch; however, aside from Sweet Apocalypse, these offerings aren’t nearly as interesting as the rest of Last Night, coming off as mere sonic doodles compared to some of Moby’s more famous downtempo tunes.

For as much as Last Night honors his roots, though, Moby hasn’t completely neglected some of the fresher influences of his discography. Material like the titular track, Ooh Yeah, Live For Tomorrow, and Hyenas finds blending of melancholic pop and lounge, especially so with the hidden bit of jazz tagged on at the end of the finale. Trumping it all though - and even the retro stuff - is Alice, which melds a whole pile of Moby-isms into a single track: blues-shuffle rhythms, squawking guitar licks, guest raps from Nigerian based group 419 Squad, catchy pop hooks... Lodging it smack in the middle of the album definitely helps prevent the whole of it from sounding like too much of a nostalgia love-in.

Ultimately, Moby’s latest is quite probably his most accomplished album since Everything Is Wrong. He may not be doing anything new on here but that’s beside the point - Last Night is the sound of a musician finding himself quite comfortable with his roots again, and proving he is more than capable of producing a song that remains just as timeless as the era it draws influence from. The mainstream media may not understand it (but, oh, they certainly do when R.E.M. does the same thing); long-time fans of electronic dance music will.

Frankie Knuckles - His Greatest Hits From Trax Records (2013 Update)

Trax Records: 2004

(Click here to read my original TranceCritic review.)

Hey, kids, are you tired of blasting electro house at festivals, knocking you over with over-the-top 'complextro' nonsense? Have you ever wondered if house music could be simple and groovin', but without sacrificing catchy hooks and kick-ass bass? Then let's take a gander at the roots of the genre, born and raised from the good ol' American city of Chicago. Wait, where are you going? What do you mean you can get your fix elsewheres? New York? Ireland!? Ya'll be trippin', I say. Ain't no house like Chicago house, right from the source. And no, I'm not talking about The Source, from which became synonymous with Frankie Knuckles even though the two likely never even talked to each other over the phone.

Ugh, this isn’t working. I’m just blathering nonsense. Against all odds, that original TranceCritic review I wrote years ago has held up. Yeah, the grammar’s still clunky in places, and I come off pointlessly defensive in the opening paragraph (does it really matter what my sexual orientation is?), but all the information you need’s right there in white on black. And any sort of ‘updating’ I could relay about Knuckles’ music on Trax has been co-opted by the seemingly never-ending ‘classic house revival’ narrative that’s developed in the past while. Hell, I just touched upon that with Hercules & Love Affair.

So I’m left with a 2013 Update with nothing to update on. That said, and half this wasteful exercise over, I’m going out to get drunk right now, and when I come back, let’s see what I’ve to say.

*tick-tock, tick-tock, not much time passed on the clock*

Well, that was pointless. Sure, I got drunk, but all too quickly for my liking. I must be exhausted, a theory totally corroborated by the wonky work hours I’ve had since getting back from vacation. Normally I work late evenings, but it’s been early mornings this past week, screwing up my sleep cycles. Thank God for energy drinks, even if they do weird things to your insides and possibly eyeballs (why do I see so many blobs and dark dots floating about?).

Is anyone still reading this far? If so, don’t be expecting some sort of new epiphany regarding Frankie Knuckles and his greatest tracks from Trax while I’m in this drunken state. The CD remains as good as when I first heard it; so instead, here’s a c+p of my concluding paragraph from my first review:

This release is a good introduction to the house sound of the mid-80s. A vibrant, hedonistic, sexual energy runs through these songs, capturing the carefree days when a gay man could escape the torment of prejudice and lose himself in house music. The tragic breakout of AIDS sadly cut short those years, and, like any scene that sprouts from innocent intents, it will never occur again. This is the soundtrack to those times and, no matter your sexual orientation, you can’t help but get lost in the moment as well.

Frankie Knuckles - His Greatest From Trax Records (Original TC Review)

Trax Records: Cat. # CTX-CD-5007
Released 2004

Track List:
1. The Night Writers - Let The Music Use You (7:55)
2. Marshall Jefferson - Move Your Body (6:43)
3. Jamie Principle - Waiting On My Angel (4:01)
4. Kevin Irving - Children Of The Night (3:53)
5. Frankie Knuckles - Your Love (6:43)
6. Screamin’ Rachael - La Vie (3:56)
7. Frankie Knuckles - Baby Wants To Ride (8:34)
8. Dezz - Boom Boom (7:45)
9. Frankie Knuckles - It’s A Cold World (5:43)
10. Frankie Knuckles with Jamie Principle - Your Love (You Got The Love Remix) (6:26)
11. Frankie Knuckles - Bad Boy (6:15)


(2010 Update:
Timing can be everything. Just a couple weeks before writing this review, I'd finished reading the excellent book Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, which provided quite an insight in the 80s gay house scene. I can honestly say I'd not have understood the context of the music on this CD without reading that book first.

Also, this review features possibly one of the best concluding paragraphs I've ever written. At least, I think so!)


IN BRIEF: A soul thing, a spiritual thing... and sometimes even a gay thing.

I am not gay. The thought of another man in a sexual manner does nothing for me. While I don’t find the notion of two men being intimate with each other as something abnormal (to each their own, right?), neither do I find it arousing. The gay lifestyle is as foreign a concept to me as a woman’s. Simply put, I am way hetero.

That all said, after listening to Frankie Knuckles Presents, I have to admit the notion of being gay sure sounds a hell of a lot of fun.

In what should be a bit of unexpected info to no one, the Godfather of house music is indeed gay, played to predominately gay audiences (most of which were black as well), and produced music that would undoubtedly appeal to such a crowd. This compilation features nearly all the songs Knuckles had a hand in that were released on Trax Records, a label that gained acclaim for tons of house classics and notoriety for dodgy business practices.

Okay, a good chunk of the music on here could be construed as being ambiguous for its target audience twenty years on. However, when you envision this stuff playing to dancefloors filled with sweaty, gyrating gay men on uplifting drugs, it just makes more sense that way, especially when vocalist Jamie Principle is present (nearly half of this compilation).

The disc opens with a pair of tracks that many equate to the classic Chicago house sound: Let The Music Use You by The Night Writers (a Knuckles pseudonym) and Marshall Jefferson’s Move Your Body (which Knuckles produced). The production is fiercely raw and simple, yet there’s something irresistible about it nonetheless, and you couldn’t picture these tracks having the same hold on you if they were re-done with modern equipment, as many, many lukewarm ‘9x and ‘0x remixes can attest to. The vocal prowess of Ricky Dillard in Let The Music Use You lifts you up as Knuckles’ production accommodates him to keep building this track with soulful energy. And when the main rhythm and piano loop starts in Move Your Body, it is quite possibly one of the defining moments in house history. Even if the track does nothing more than alternate between various drum, string, piano, and vocal loops from there on out, the energy from that first drop carries over to the very end.

However, these two tracks aren’t a good indication of what to expect on this release. Rather, Waiting For My Angel is more indicative of the Knuckles sound on Trax. With its bubbly bass, analogue synths, tinny percussion and vocals washed in reverb, the sound is unmistakingly 80s. It conjures up that seedy, decadently sinful inner city neon flavor that was the decade’s clubbing calling card. Of interesting note on this particular track is Jamie Principle’s performance: save a few breathy moans and effeminate giggles late in the track, he sings far more ‘straight’ than we will hear later on.

Kevin Irving’s Children Of The Night is one of the few tracks here that stretches the Knuckles association a bit thin; he’s merely credited as the mixer, certainly an integral part of the studio process but hardly one that normally goes recognized. While having this slice of housey-italo blend is nice, it unfortunately does showcase one of the big problems Trax Records was known for: sketchy producing. Granted, everything on here does contain some really rough sound but we tend to overlook that much in the same way we overlook the rough sound quality of 60s rock music -the music manages to still move you in spite of this. However, Children Of The Night is poor even for Trax Records. There’s just no resonance to be had, and the song comes out sounding incredibly flat. It’s not I.F.O.R. piss-poor, but glaringly obvious in this case.

Moving on, we come to Your Love. You may know this track as the original backing to You Got The Love (also included on this disc, though under a different name). The lush pad work, catchy bassline and arpeggio hook are all here, though in far rawer incarnations. Also, Jamie Principle has the vocal duties on this one, elegantly crooning between heavy sighs. Your Love, above all else, is incredibly stirring, especially at the apex of the track when the backing pads rise to their highest note with the female chorus. As the track ends with a bit of choir backing and Jamie erotically moans, “I can’t let go”, the lush, tender nature of Your Love will fully embrace you, even if the sexual orientation seems ambiguous.

Screamin’ Rachael’s La Vie is another song merely mixed by the Knuckler, and it shows as this track doesn’t hold much similarity to the ones bearing his name alone on here. Rather, La Vie is more italo in nature, although it does contain some funky slap bass guitar to complement the stuttery synths.

Baby Wants To Ride. Hoo, boy. You may want to hold onto your hats if Jamie’s moans and giggles in the earlier tracks were too gay for you. Here, he breathily speaks about various things while Frankie’s funky bass and sinister synths drone in the background. What starts out as some sort of commune with God turns into a reflection of a sexual encounter with some gal, playfully delivered with all the sexy slyness Prince was known for; prudes’ll probably blush at some of his moaning, heh. When some extra percussion is added mid-way through (the rhythm is pretty sparse), Jamie goes into some odd political tangents. Ultimately, the general gist of it is America’s double-standard of claiming to be a free country, yet discriminating gays. All in all, it’s a pretty cool sounding track but seems to wander aimlessly at points.

Boom Boom from Dezz (Knuckles again only credited as the mixer) is an example of early acid house: big, cavernous rhythms, some associated lyrics, and the TB-303 getting a simple workout. While nowhere near as complex as the little acid box would later get, there are some interesting tricks pulled on Boom Boom, especially when it gets a bit distorted near the end. Nothing sequenced here, just raw, improvised knob-tweaking over a backing beat. It is even more aimless than Baby Wants To Ride, though, and at nearly eight minutes in length, you may lose interest since Boom Boom really is sparse. Pretty much one of those songs that makes better sense on a dancefloor.

Another Frankie & Jamie collaboration is next in the form of It’s A Cold World, a somber, reflective song that probably spoke to several gays coming to grips with their sexuality. Knuckles doesn’t miss a chance to play off of Principle’s lyrics, making use of an eerie synth pad towards the end to complement the song’s themes. Sadly, the mastering of It’s A Cold World isn’t the best, as you do hear some unfortunate frapping of the bass and distortion of the lyrics at points.

I guess when the original bootleg of You Got The Love first cropped up, Frankie took it upon himself to make an ‘official remix’ and release it commercially legit. That’s what we get here, although I wonder why Jamie Principle is credited but not Candi Staton on this CD’s tracklist? He only provides a bit of backing vocals here. Oh, how is the song? Well, my associate critic J’ already covered all the details in his review of the latest re-release of You Got The Love, so you can check that one out if you want. As for my personal opinion, this is a decent bit of diva house, and probably the ‘cleanest’ sounding track to be had here (mainly because it was produced a few years later than the others). And you still can’t beat the moment when the backing pads hit that high note, even if they aren’t as prominent here as they are in the original Your Love.

And finally, at the end, we get the absolutely unabashedly gay song Bad Boy. Very happy, very fey, and very quirky, it’s a cute track, but I wouldn’t dare play it to a homophobic frat party. The track list credits this to Knuckles, but this is a Jamie Principle song. Every single vinyl that has had Bad Boy on it has had Principle’s name on it. Why credit it to Knuckles and Knuckles alone here? Hnn... it seems the sketchy labeling of Trax Records continues, even in retrospectives such as these.

For that matter, despite the choice tracks to be had on Frankie Knuckles Presents, the overall presentation leaves a bit to be desired. This is hardly the entire Frankie story, as we’re only getting a slice of his discography. Mind, that’s to be expected since this is only the material that came out on Trax but those seeking a more comprehensive collection may have to wait a little longer. The other gripe I have is the sound quality on some of these. Yes, I know house veterans would be screaming ‘sacrilege’ if anyone tampered with the original masters, but let’s be fair here. Many of them were kind of shoddy to begin with and, in this day of digital marvels, wouldn’t it be nice to perhaps give these classics a proper sound treatment so we can enjoy them in their full glory? I’m not asking for a “Greedo shoots first” kind of change, just an “eliminate that pink blob under the landspeeder” kind of change.

Still, this release is a decent enough introduction to the house sound of the mid-80s. A vibrant, hedonistic, sexual energy runs through these songs, capturing the carefree days when a gay man could escape the torment of prejudice in the world and lose himself in house music. The tragic breakout of AIDS sadly cut short those years, and, like any scene that sprouts from innocent intents, it will never occur again. This is the soundtrack to those times and, no matter your sexual orientation, you can’t help but get lost in the moment as well.


Score: 7/10

ACE TRACKS:
Marshall Jefferson - Move Your Body
Jamie Principle - Waiting On My Angel
Frankie Knuckles - Your Love


Written by Sykonee. Originally published 2006 for TranceCritic.com. © All rights reserved.