I S A N "Salamander" (Morr Music, mm003)
there's something special with old analogue synths - the
sound feels warmer than those that todays digital machines can
manage. much of it has to do with that digital sounds are way too
perfect, while analogue ditto gladly oscillate a bit hither and yon.
the sounds get softer edges.
Integrated Services Ananlogue Network, ISAN, base their whole
musical work on the above. tiny simple melodies, often just a few
notes long, played on noisy old boxes with lots of knobs on. it is of
course impossible not to compare ISAN with Boards of Canada, both are
british bands whose music sometimes reminds you of the soundtrack to
nature programmes of the seventies. But where Boards of Canada use
hiphop beats ISAN's softer rhythm section draws more influences from
Aphex Twins calmer moments: loads of synthetic, chopped-off beats.
This combined with the almost naïvistic melodies creates a lovely
dynamic between soft and hard, clear and cloudy. And even if the
melodies in ISAN's music can seem simple, that impression is negated
by the sheer multitude of melodies the record contains, each song is
constructed from several layers of themes that flows in and out of
each other, i.e. in the brilliant title track.
"Salamander," eleven complicated bagatelles in a good
looking, non-plastic container, is released on the small but
interesting german label Morr Music (pronounced "more music"). also
check out ISAN's remix of Seefeel's "When Face Was Face," one of the
best tracks from "WARP10+3 Remixes."
Henrik Strömberg
translated from swedish late at night...
__________________________________________________________
1999: cabbage boy, scanner, breakbeat era, terranova, we,
jochem paap, tobin, snd, gus gus, boom boom satellites,
capitol k, freq.nasty, stigh strand vs rutherford, i s a n
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