Patrick Smith's Intensive Care Audio Devices are Surgical Precision Engineered Instruments hand-crafted in the heart of Stoke Newington

Unlike most, The Doctor's first forays into pedal crafting weren't the usual modding of mainstream pedals, in fact Patrick has always prided himself of his independent and alternative mindset. This is born out also by his unusual rig setup where he mostly favours fairly untypical and unusual amps - like the Gem Mars G30, WEM Dominator MKII, and a recently acquired c.1972 Peavey Century 120 Bass Series Head (as pictured below). Meanwhile his main guitar is a Jazzmaster type or more correctly Partsmaster which he of course assembled himself!

The very first pedal The Doctor made was a version of the Tremulus Lune 4ms all-analog Tremolo - around 2015, where the above pictured version is a later edition of that design from circa 2020.

While the first pedal Patrick ever sold and shipped was a Vox Repeater clone he sold on Ebay back in 2016.

Very early edition Silicon Fuzz!

Following on from his various experiments with tremolos, the first proper Intensive Care Audio pedal was another sort of modulation - the Fideleater Lo-Fi Chorus / Vibrato / Delay - which was initially made as a 1590B unit for a friend - in a somewhat more basic configuration than the current one. This was around 2017, where Patrick then made an evolved an improved version for himself around one year later - in a larger 1590BB enclosure - which would then be refined to become the very first branded Intensive Care Audio Pedal in early 2020. Which in its then original format was in horizontal orientation (as pictured above) - and later evolved to its current vertical format.

Before the Fideleater was fully formed, Patrick was already experimenting with what would become the Vena Cava Filter, which started off as a sort of Auto Wah type which was then somewhat massively evolved to reach its current format.

As mentioned in the introduction, the band Spiritualized was a particular inspiration for The Doctor - and especially their celebrated 1997 NME Album of the Year 'Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space'. It was the Pharmaceutical styling and packaging for that album - including pill-style blister packs and medication guide inserts (as pictured above) which inspired the Medical Devices Look and Feel and overall theme of the Intensive Care Audio brand - which I feel is an incredibly strong and distinct look.

There are so many neat touches to the Intensive Care Audio Design Theme - both in the product design, and the packaging. I love how the pedals come in a UK NHS (National Health Service) Prescription Bag, accompanied by NHS branded plasters and similarly medically themed inserts as was the case with the above Spiritualized album.

Intensive Care Audio is properly experimental and independently minded - much like Patrick's sometime mentor David Rainger - who kind of gave Patrick his first proper start / break in this industry - shortly before the outbreak of Covid. Patrick still puts in the occasional shift for Rainger FX - to help out as such, while the impact of the Covid period, and in particular working from home during that time really spring-boarded the creation of the Intensive Care Audio brand which currently has distribution in the UK, USA, Australia, Japan, Portugal and Singapore.

The roster right at this minute consists of 4 killer gain and modulation pedals, while there is a 5th pedal imminent which I'm not yet fully at liberty to disclose!

The Fideleater remains the most significant still in many ways as it was the first, and is still the overall bestseller, while it's being fast caught up by increasingly popular - the Vena Cava Filter / Distortion / Ring Mod (as pictured above) - which just happens to be my favourite of the range!

We then have the dual gain Death Drive (above) - a massively doomy, slightly sludgy drive-distortion - perfect for Shoegaze and Stoner Rock. And finally the Recovery Phase Dual Modulator Phase-Shifter & Tremolo - whose format and orientation harks back to the very earliest Intensive Care Audio Designs.

All the devices are of course available from the Intensive Care Audio Dispensary, as well as leading International Dispensaries - including :

UK : Break The Machine, FX Pedal Planet, No.Tom Guitars

USA : Amelia Island Fine Guitars, Eastside Music Supply, Gear Hero HQ, Sound Shoppe NYC.

EUROPE : The Pedal Zone (Denmark), Palf (France), StratGear (Portugal).

AUSTRALIA : Mocha Earth Music

ASIA : LEP International (Japan), Jmave Guitars (Singapore)

Controls - Drive (Saturation), Mood (Tone : Dark > Bright), Ego (Output), Destruction (Distortion).

A glorious doomy saturating distortion which is perfect for Shoegaze and Stoner Rock in particular.

Full Review coming soon!

Controls - Frequency (LFO Speed), Wave Function : Random Slopes / Random Steps / Staircase / Sine / Triangle / Square / Ramp Down / Ramp Up, Dry/Wet Mix, Contract (Delay Feedback) : On/Off, Depth, Untie (Delay Time) : More / Less, Bypass Footswitch, Tap Tempo Footswitch.

A lush lo-fi modulator with complementary delay - for creating the most exquisite of textures to underpin your melodies.

Controls - Frequency, Depth, Depth 2, Frequency 2, LFO 1 Waveforms : Random Slopes / Random Steps / Staircase / Sine / Triangle / Square / Ramp Down / Ramp Up, Mode : Trem / Phase, LFO 2 On / Off, LFO 2 Waveforms : Random Slopes / Random Steps / Staircase / Sine / Triangle / Square / Ramp Down / Ramp Up, Bypass Footswitch, Tap Tempo Footswitch.

Beautiful combination of Phaser and Tremolo for superior swirly textures!