Isolee - Western Store

Isolee, "Bleu"

Isolee, "Rockers"

Isolee, "Simone Rides"

Since I've been discussing dance and house music, it makes sense to take a look at the music of one of the mosty highly regarded house producers around today, Isolee. I kinda hate to do it, as his name (and the name of his alter-egos like Luomo) has always been one of the those that is acceptable to outsiders, who can be considered cool by indie kids and avant-garders. I'm always wary of that, as it usually means that the person doesn't like the genre, a thinly veiled insult to the people who love that genre. Like the people who love Kanye because he's not really too hip-hop. Maybe I'm just too sensitive.

With Isolee, I don't have any sense that he is coming at house/techno with condescension. Rather, he seems to be well-versed on the history and sounds, which enables him to tweak everything and make something crazy and new. It's not hard to see why he appeals to so many different groups, as his music is that open and layered. He first came to my attention in the pages of Wire, the British avant-garde magazine, who loved what he was doing to house.

I'm not really an expert on this type of music, as I always feel a bit off in discussing the myriad of genres in dance music, let alone trying to explain how a particular release relates to that. I take the word of experts for the most part, but can at least describe the music above and this new release, Western Store. All three tracks have the same pulse and structure as house music, but it's not quite. Momentum is always stopped, the sounds are stripped to the bone, the listener is forced to adapt in the course of a 6 minute song. The first one, "Bleu", seems to illustrate this best, moving from classic house to almost dub, ping-pong-y beats sparsely providing the foundation at the end. I can't imagine how it plays on the dancefloor, but would love to be at the place where it works. Now that would be a club.

Go here and cop the album, for the obscene import price of $27.49. I added three tracks, because this album is so expensive and it seems that there are no American labels willing to release this stuff domestically. For those wondering, this album actually features material that came out between the other two albums, Rest and We Are Monster. It doesn't come off as a compilation of singles, as Playhouse clearly sees this as a new album. Tomorrow we will have some tracks from We Are Monster, which featured his most recent music.

-For an example of great writing on dance music, hell just great writing period, check out this Philip Sherburne review of Western Store. More to come on this bol, one of the best.

-Before you get all dance-y and happy with the music, I need to discuss some politics. Check out this article by Robert Kennedy Jr. in Rolling Stone called "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?" A story that was too-easily dismissed by the media after Bush's victory, especially considering the fact that the previous election was so controversial, to be diplomatic. Chris Bowers at MyDD has a great response, urging people to get involved at the local level, to not get paralyzed by conspiracy theories or feelings of helplessness. He even has a short list of workable goals that progressives and Democrats could pursue.

-Boris tonight at the First Unitarian Church, playing with Growing and Thrones. Tickets are $12, another R5 headbanger, don't sleep on this one. Pound for Pound should be in the house, so you know it's the place to be.