Test Icicles: The Dig Your Own Grave EP

Wow. Talk about your quick flame-outs. Test Icicles, the band with the ridiculous name, produced a single album, a handful of singles, and this, The Dig Your Own Grave EP. Three versions of “Circle.Square.Triangle” and two mixes of “What’s Your Damage” make up more than half the tracks here. And most are surprisingly engaging. The fuzzy guitar and vocals mix surprisingly well with the ’80s-era synthesizer lines. The Alan Braxe and Fred Falke remix of “What’s Your Damage” cribs something along the lines of Yazoo and Human League, which somehow soften the scream-delivery vocals. Jitset’s Cat Shit mix of “Catch It!” featuring MC Statik and Ruff Squad is an engaging hip-hop twist over post-punk. Some of it’s disposable, but in all it’s a fine epilogue to the “It” band’s abbreviated career.