Description
Breakin’ the Ice is the sophomore album the American rock group Sweet Comfort Band, released on Light Records in 1978. (According to the August 19, 1978 issue of Record World, “Light Records recently signed the recording group Sweet Comfort. Formerly of Maranatha Music, the group will record their first album for Light as their touring schedule permits late this summer…“) The album was recorded by Jack Joseph Puig at Martinsound Studios in Alhambra and by Dan Willard at Maranatha Studios in Costa Mesa, California; with Bob Wilson of the progressive jazz-fusion band Seawind producing. Mixed by Mike Stone at The Record Plant in Los Angeles, California. Cover artwork by Kernie Erickson. Featuring The Seawind Horns. Breakin’ the Ice has been described by CCM Magazine music critic Bruce A. Brown as “one of the most legitimate R&B albums ever released.”
Breakin’ the Ice was named one of Campus Life‘s Top Records of 1979, included on a list featuring six albums released during the last year (published in the November 1979 issue of the magazine). – Jazz is a territory not much traversed by Christian musicians. No wonder, considering jazz’s checkered past, its torrid present and uncertain future. Besides, it’s hard to play, requires more extensive musical knowledge and has a limited appeal to most listeners. Sweet Comfort seems to have gotten around most of those difficulties to win over a growing audience. This album features the horn work of Seawind – another jazz-oriented Christian group. The sound is smooth, carrying the message of the power of God’s love.”
Breakin’ The Ice brings a slight change in the band’s name, a switch over to the Light label, and a noticeable maturity in sound. More first-rate samplings of glad-spirited pop-rock («Got To Believe»), funk-rock (the title track), mellow soft-jazz ballads («I Love You With My Life»), slick lounge-jazz («I Need Your Love Again») and disco («Good Feelin»). Even if you’re not normally a fan of those styles, check these guys out anyway – they’ve got so much spunk and enthusiasm it’s hard not to like them. Still room for some straight-ahead organ/electric-guitar Petra-type rock in «Searchin’ For Love». Horns provided by members of Seawind, production and horn arrangements by Seawind’s Bob Wilson. Gatefold sleeve with stand-out cover art by Kernie Erickson. [Ken Scott, The Archivist, 4th edition]
Back in the ’70s the west coast of America was a hotbed of Christian music and Sweet Comfort Band emerged with a debut album on Calvary Chapel’s Maranatha! Music label in 1977. That album still awaits a re-release but in the meantime Retroactive Records have issued all five of the band’s albums originally on Light Records. ‘Breakin’ The Ice’ was first issued in 1978 and marked the first time all the elements that made this band great came together. With a marriage of funk and jazz, pop and rock, this features a finely crafted selection of songs and a lush production that includes the world class Seawind horn section. Vocals from keyboardist Bryan Duncan, drummer Rick Thompson and guitarist Randy Thomas create some gorgeous harmonies. This is a classic album for the period and standouts include the upbeat opener «Got To Believe» where the pair trade vocals, and the funky pop perfection of the title cut. The pounding «Searching For Love» highlights the blue eyed plaintive soul vocals of Duncan and the effective groove of the Thompson brothers’ rhythms section. The closing «I Love You With My Life» has remained a favourite for Duncan who penned the tune and has re-recorded it a number of times over the years. It was one of the great albums of the era. [Mike Rimmer, Cross Rhythms, November 2009]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/breakin-the-ice/291441332)
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “Got To Believe” – 3:56
A2. “Breakin’ The Ice” – 3:40
A3. “Young Girl” – 3:15
A4. “Melody, Harmony” – 3:20
A5. “I Need Your Love Again” – 4:30
Side Two
B1. “Good Feelin'” – 4:00
B2. “Searchin’ For Love” – 4:06
B3. “The Lord Is Calling” – 3:56
B4. “I Love You With My Life” – 4:01
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and 12-inch vinyl LP by Light Records. Later re-issued on CD by Light Records. Remastered by J. Powell at Steinhaus and re-issued on CD by Retroactive Records in 2009 as Digipak, distributed by Brutal Planet Distribution.
Gatefold Cover Artwork
Gatefold Cover, Inside
“Breakin’ the Ice: Limited Edition – Remastered”, Retroactive Records 2009
It took some funky band with horns to not just make this man who loved rock, folk, jazz and blues buy their album in 1978, but to still be loving it three decades later. Sweet Comfort Band is that act and Breakin’ the Ice is the disc. Judging by the feeding frenzy at Tollboothville when these SCB re-issues were announced, I am not the only one to remember this with more than affection.
Breakin’ the Ice deserves any praise lavished on it. Whether because they had accumulated a good stock of songs or whether by fluke, this collection has a complete set of goodies and no duds. Maybe it is the musical tension between funk, soul and rock that makes each track so strong, or maybe they are just great, tautly-constructed melodies played by consummate musicians.
Certainly the musicianship helps a lot and the four-piece has quality oozing from their pores. The Thomson brothers’ funky rhythm section is tight and sharp, with a bass that loves to strut; Randy Thomas’s guitar can solo, riff, play a funk rhythm or fill in as needed; tasty synth is dotted about and Bryan Duncan’s singing has always been class. He never gives less than everything on this, and his solo career shows how he is up there with any white soul singer; smooth, but always with passion.
Every track wraps an arm round you and invites you in to share the experience just try not to move, feel and enjoy throughout! It begins like Chicago, featuring the Seawind horns. On the title track, the horns and some funky bass synth take the strain, along with the band’s three-part harmonies, leaving guitar to fill in. Then the simple ballad «Young Girl» slows the tempo down for a bit. You can’t really listen to the guitar riff, vocals and piano licks of «Melody, Harmony» without thinking of the Doobies (as you have to think of «Long Train Runnin’» when the guitar riff and synth solos break out later on «The Lord is Calling») and it leads almost seamlessly into the oh-so-smooth «I Need Your Love Again», the guitar highly reminiscent of Tom Howard’s début.
The second half is another mix of ballads, disco-funk and rock, but the piece that sets it alight is the near-perfect «Searchin’ for Love». Even with no horns, it is one track that sums up how well everyone just clicks together organically and intuitively, whether the machine-gun licks of the guitar, the supportive organ, or some drum breaks that add a real kick. Again, Duncan squeezes every bit of feeling out of this one, bending his notes all over. If you don’t buy the album, at least download this song.
After all this time, and having suffered Christian music’s descent to majoring on ‘intimate worship’ to the exclusion of so much else for so long, it is refreshing to hear songs that mix worship with real issues: commitment, life-change, the devil, truth, love, the virtues of faith and returning to God. However well the music plays, their lyrics always offer substance.
Michael Omartian, another ’70s/’80s artist who had similarly creative soul-rock tensions, lost all the oomph, energy and style of his début White Horse during and after Adam Again, when he went dramatically soulwards. Similarly, although it maintained the high musicianship and featured Richie Furay, Hold On Tight, Sweet Comfort Band’s follow-up to this, was filled with unadventurous, mid-tempo pieces that had all the urgency of a Formula one race when the safety car is on the track. The melodies simply did not inspire any exciting arrangements, and it sounds like they didn’t believe they could capture the magic again.
The disc after that, Hearts of Fire started the road back. Although beautifully produced and polished to a smooth sheen, it swapped some of the horns for strings, and still lacked the pace and dramatic cohesion of Breakin’ the Ice. It took a hornless re-invention of the band to a Toto or Europe keyboard-dominated sound to re-instate their energy for their last two discs, Cutting Edge and Perfect Timing.
It would have been good to check producers to see whether they had anything to do with the variation in album quality, but unfortunately these discs do not have any of the extras that you might expect from a 30-year, limited-edition anniversary re-mastered version; not even writing or production credits.
All the same, four cheers to Retroactive for bringing this gem back to us. [Derek Walker, The Phantom Tollbooth, 2010]
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