The first track on the EP, "Smokin'", was commissioned by British television station Channel 4 for a programme about sloth presented by Howard Marks as part of a series on the seven deadly sins.

The band went into Grassroots, a community recording studio in Cardiff, in June 1997 and looped a sample of the Black Uhuru track "I Love King Selassie", playing along and writing "Smokin'" "completely spontaneously".

A 12" vinyl release of Ice Hockey Hair was issued in June 1998 and includes all four songs from the CD version albeit in a different track order.

It's a stage in the process of regeneration and renewal" was to have been featured on Ice Hockey Hair's sleeve but the band eventually decided against the idea as they felt the phrase was too long.

The Melody Maker called the Ice Hockey Hair EP "brilliant, predictably freakish weirdness" and described it as a cross between The Beach Boys and techno while guest reviewers Therapy?

[11] Vox stated that Ice Hockey Hair proved the band's "placid casual grasp of the concept of genius", describing the title track as a "gooey, melted mix of Queen, ELO, Pavement and [...] Techno Animal" and "Smokin'", which they felt was the EP's stand-out song, as "deranged disco delirium".

[4] The NME felt that the EP showed the Super Furry Animals had fulfilled their early promise and was the result of the band having "ideas like most people have cups of tea", awarding Ice Hockey Hair 'single of the week' in their 23 May 1998 issue.

[3] "Ice Hockey Hair" was described as a combination of Queen, ELO, Wings, and "mad techno squalling" which sounds like "Elton John's glitter-coated grand piano" falling from the sky.

[3] AllMusic described the Ice Hockey Hair EP as "another fun, cool group of songs from a band that can seemingly do no wrong" which bridges the gap between the "spaced-out rock" of 1997's Radiator and the "pop/rock electronic experimentation" of 1999's Guerrilla.

1, Drowned in Sound claimed that "Ice Hockey Hair" "could be the most perfect thing you'll ever set ears upon" while the BBC viewed the "sublime" track as one of the record's highlights.

[15][16][17] Reviewing Outspaced, the Melody Maker described the "filthily funky" "Smokin'" as brilliant and Select called it one of the "joyous pinnacles" of the album, suggesting that the track was inspired by P-Funk.

[21] * denotes an unordered list The promotional music video for "Ice Hockey Hair" was directed by Daf Palfrey and appears on the DVD version of the band's 'greatest hits' album Songbook: The Singles, Vol.

After 1 minute and 6 seconds the Super Furry Animals are shown playing along to the track on a rotating dancefloor surrounded by photo booths and several dancers in dark clothes.

During an instrumental break in the song, at 1 minute 38 seconds, two masked men are shown playing table tennis on another rotating dancefloor with two large fluorescent purple circles in the background.

After quick jump cuts between shots of the band, the masked men playing table tennis and the five characters, "The voyeur" is shown pointing his video camera at the motionless body of "The mistress" which is laid in a bathtub covered in film stock.

Her arms and face are illuminated in the otherwise dark room and she is shown walking backwards down the table, giving coloured cards to each of the figures wearing berets.

In the final shot the woman places her hands on the table and stares at the camera as the video fades out to show the same Super Furry Animals' 'SFA' logo which appeared at the very beginning.