On first listen, DAT OVEN's 1998 House track, "Icy Lake," sounds like that moment in a horror film right before all hell breaks loose—when the doomed hero says something along the lines of: "I just thought I'd call before I throw myself into the icy lake." That ominous line is repeated throughout the haunting club track, recently rediscovered by TOTAL FREEDOM in a YouTube video of iconic '90s nightclub Palladium. Now, it's part of a rerelease by sister crews NIGHT SLUGS and FADE TO MIND, that also includes new mixes by L-VIS 1990, TOTAL FREEDOM, NA of NGUZUNGUZU, and the very recently passed DJ Rashad (RIP).
In fact, the "icy lake" suicide threat is a bit of dark humor, referring to the excruciating boredom of hanging out with one's in-laws at Christmas. As Night Slugs and Fade To Mind discovered as they set out to research the track's origins, the line was taken from a voicemail message left to Dat Oven member, Jeffery Gratton, by a friend in the late '90s. The morbid joke is set to melodic chimes, breaking glass, and a ticking clock, all sonic elements appreciated and similarly used to build any epic Night Slugs or Fade To Mind musical composition.
Last week, the crews released a short documentary via Thump on their research tracking down "Icy Lake" and its origins, and the process of crafting individual remixes that reflect the unique, stylistic approaches of the crews' producers. The short film's writer and producer L-VIS 1990 (who also soundtracked OC's last FW14 FASHION PRESENTATION) gave us some of his thoughts on the amazing project. Scroll to the bottom to watch the documentary!
JACKY TANG: Walk me through how this project came to fruition.
L-VIS 1990: This project has been long in the making. It all started when Total Freedom discovered the "Icy Lake" track in 2012. We were all blown away by how much it sounded like one of our own productions! A friend of ours found the CD on Discogs, and it quickly got distributed around the Night Slugs and Fade to Mind camp. We all started to play it and make our own edits; we were so inspired!
I managed to get in contact with one of the original producers, Jeffery Gratton, through YouTube. We exchanged e-mails, and he ended up coming to hang at my studio in Brooklyn. It was here, where I found out the depth to this track, and the first seeds of the documentary idea were planted. We actually filmed a lot of footage with Gratton, but unfortunately, he ended up withdrawing for personal reasons. It was a pretty sad moment for me, as I felt like we had buil