Rags to Riches, Idea Fire Company

By A Mystery Man Writer

Last updated 16 Jun 2024

*Originally released in 2013 An edited and remastered issue of a tape by the IFCO quartet – Scott Foust, Karla Borecky, Jessi Swenson, & Meara O’Reilly. Rags To Riches is a live record documenting pieces from 2003 through 2005. Showcasing some top-shelf unreleased works; “The Whole World,” “Metropolis,” and “The Bitter End.” Older material is also included, a fierce version of “Artificial” from 2005’s Stranded, as well as the notorious “Cycle-19.” Additionally, there is a beautiful voice-based rendition of “Some Of Us” by IFCO comrades’ The Shadow Ring. All these pieces exhibit a contemplative and well-informed use of electronics, radio, and voice. Interlaced with spoken title announcements in French, punching typewriter passages, and bookended perfectly with audience dialogue and Mr. Ferry. Their mechanical and uncompromising aesthetic is pronounced, as Rags To Riches reminds us all why Idea Fire Company are such an important contemporary outfit. VOLCANIC TONGUE WRITE-UP: “Vinyl edition of what was originally a cassette-only release documenting the short-lived quartet line-up of Idea Fire Company: recorded between 2003-2004 here Scott Foust and Karla Borecky are joined by Jessi Swenson (Believers/Duck et al) and Meara O’Reilly as well as on one track by Matt Krefting. This LP edition gathers the best of the cassette, including trio, quartet and quintet line-ups, live art brut rituals, some of the crudest most cranking machine noise this side of The New Blockaders and a massively zoned/psychedelic deconstruction of The Shadow Ring’s “Some Of Us” single. The quartet line-up was truly one of IFCO’s best, combining a kind of sophisticated trash-glam appeal with a radical DIY approach to punk-concrete and some serious smarts. On Sean McCann’s own imprint.”