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about this album
In their bio on the band’s trusty myspace page, Iona chronicles their journeys from forming in Germany to members spending time in Montreal and Chicago, before reconvening back in their homeland. These travels and experiences are very evident in the sound contained on their debut full length A Noise. Let’s face it, we all know what Montreal has brought to the table in the post-rock world, and it seems like the last half dozen bands I’ve reviewed for this site have been from the Windy City. With a band still in the development stage, spending time in these two post-rock hubs is bound to have an influence, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There is definitely a strong Constellation Records feel to the whole vibe of this album. The melodic repetitive guitar phrasing a la Do Make Say Think combines with the distorted echo flares that GYBE love so much, with a dab of creepy Set Fire To Flames experimentation to boot. While at times the album can fall into forgettable standard post-rock fare, there is also lots of promise that overshadow these problem areas. For instance, instead of the predictable crashing distortion drenched climaxes that only Mono seems to have perfected, the heavy parts that Iona builds to often meshes distorted and clean tones together, with the drums rarely swelling to total rock-out proportions. Some of the stronger moments on A Noise are created by the subtle sounds that round out the standard guitar-bass-drums formula. Album opener “0/2/9" starts out
