"Lay Your Hands On Me"

This fantastic new dance track by Iva Davies/Icehouse has recently been receiving airplay on several Australian radio stations, most notably NOVA 96.9 FM in Sydney. It has also been enjoying a ride on Jimmy Z's Direct Dance Chart and is currently charting extremely well on his newly created Buzz Chart. "Lay Your Hands On Me" proves once again that Iva has the talent to mold his signature sound to fit any genre in which he chooses to work. The single is slated to be released on September 30th, and the song will also be included on...

...Meltdown

A collection of Icehouse classics have been remixed by several DJs, to be released on a CD called Meltdown. According to a recent announcement on the IMMEDIA website, possible inclusions are "Can't Help Myself," "Electric Blue," "Great Southern Land," and "Love In Motion." This CD is currently scheduled to be available October 14th. Here's an Undercover Media article as written by Paul Cashmere (with a few corrections made by Spellbound):

Icehouse has gone under reconstruction with some of Australia's hottest DJ's remixing the classic hits.

A modernised version of the Icehouse classics will come out in October remixed by sonicanimation, paulmac, Love Tattoo, Wicked Beat Sound System, Pnau, Infusion, Ivan Gough, Bexta, and more. The album will be titled Meltdown.

Iva signed to Warner Music on July 12 for the album, but the deal also includes the re-release of all previous albums remastered and with bonus tracks.

According to Iva, "Originally it was intended that the albums come out in their 'classic' form simply to provide stock for those who wished to buy them (albeit that the sound and presentation quality has been much improved). However in discussions with the record company last week we decided that it would be a prime opportunity to 'value add' to the albums by including any tracks related to their release or period which have not been available on CD, except perhaps through sets like the 'A-side, B-side' collection. Examples of these from the Flowers album would be tracks like the original 'Love In Motion' single from Australasia and its accompanying B-side 'Goodnight, Mr. Matthews'."

The eight studio albums will be released with a handful of bonus tracks each. The albums are Icehouse, Primitive Man, Sidewalk, Measure For Measure, Man Of Colours, Code Blue, Big Wheel, and The Berlin Tapes. The re-releases will be available in September.

Icehouse have had sales in excess of 28 platinum albums in Australia alone (2,000,000+), and 20 Top 40 singles.

Warner Music Reissues the Icehouse Back Catalog

This is the project for which Spellbound has been monitoring Iva's Poll, where Iva has asked his fans to provide suggestions for which b-sides and rarities should appear on each of the eight reissued Icehouse albums. Chaos Music, Sanity, and eBay already have these CDs available for pre-order. The scheduled release date is late September-early October (date subject to change, of course). Amazon also has some of the reissues listed (at astronomical prices!).

Phoenix

Phoenix, the latest CD by Eye Talk, was released on August 7th. Iva is credited with contributing backing vocals and keyboards on "Heart of Darkness," and vocals and keyboard samples on "Reflection." Band member Alan Clark told Spellbound that working with Iva was "a great experience." Other musicians who provided their talent for this CD were Steve Jansen and Jerry Donato, while David Sylvian, Bill Nelson, and John Serrie provided samples. US residents may purchase this CD directly from Eye Talk's website; non-US residents can order the CD through Townsend Records.

Other Albums Touched by the DIVA

The new album by Motor Ace, entitled Shoot This, has debuted on the ARIA album chart at #1! This album includes the song "Carry On," for which Iva Davies and former Icehouse guitarist David Chapman provided the string arrangement. The band is being managed by yet another guitarist for Icehouse, Paul Gildea. Paul recently brought Motor Ace to Los Angeles to rouse up some international interest in the band. At the time, negotiations were underway for The Left Bank Organization to take over the band's management in the U.S. Spellbound took advantage of the opportunity to catch up with Paul at Motor Ace's industry performance at The Knitting Factory in Hollywood, on 5 June.

It was great to visit with Paul again, and quite interesting to see the record business at work. Most of the audience present at this artist showcase was made up of members of The Left Bank Organization, scouts from several record companies, and a handful of music journalists. The band first played "Carry On," followed by a 40-minute set of songs from their current and previous albums. As Paul had promised, they were good and loud! We're keeping our fingers crossed that good things come from that evening for Motor Ace!

Another album that recently debuted at #1 is The Whitlams' Torch The Moon. The initial limited edition release of this CD has an additional bonus disc, which includes The Whitlams' cover of the 1984 Icehouse classic "Don't Believe Anymore." Recognizable at the beginning of the track is a sample taken from the original recording.

Diamond Gods - Interpretations of Bowie

A bit of old news that has just come to light is the inclusion of Iva's version of "Loving The Alien" on a CD compiling several artists' renditions of David Bowie songs. This CD was released on October 22, 2001 in the UK. More information can be found at Bowie Wonderworld.