The side project of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart drummer Kurt Feldman, Ice Choir’s “Two Rings” secured a spot on my Top 100 Tracks of 2011 list. With a glistening soul-dipped sound that channeled Spandau Ballet, Tears For Fears, and George Michael, I was seduced by Ice Choir’s easy charms.

Happily, “Two Rings” was no one-off fling. Feldman and his Ice Choir cohorts Patrick South, Raphael Radna, and Avery Brooks are back, proving themselves adept devotees of sophisticated ’80s pop. On “Teletrips,” the first single from the band’s forthcoming debut, Afar, Feldman again sounds uncannily like George Michael, while the production recalls Breathe’s “Hands To Heaven.” “Teletrips” is like floating along on the fluffiest of clouds.

Afar is out 7/31 on Underwater Peoples. Here’s the tracklisting:

01 “I Want You Now And Always”
02 “Teletrips”
03 “A Vision Of Hell, 1996”
04 “Bounding”
05 “Two Rings”
06 “Afar”
07 “Peacock In The Tall Grass”
08 “The Ice Choir”
09 “Everything Is Spoilt By Use”

Free download of The Ice Choir – “Teletrips” via Pitchfork.