isolee - wearemonster

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wow, it has both texture and direction (songs, non-boring, rational progressions & changes basically) in spades for me.

I still need to pick up Rest, but SO will eventually.

xpost - Pillowtalk is probably my most played track by a long way.

I can only gush really at this point. It's virtually perfect in every way.

― fandango (fandango), Wednesday, 27 June 2001 02:57 (twenty-four years ago)

three years pass...

haven't seen any talk about this, and don't seem to be able to find out much about it via google, but i think i read somewhere that it's coming out in june. i really like it on a first couple of listens, particularly "schrapnell", whcih reminds m of some rock track that i can't quite place.

― toby (tsg20), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 12:10 (twenty years ago)

heard 2 tracks from it and found it hard to believe they were isloee 'cos they were so discofied. It took me 2 listens to get used to them and now i love them, theyre a real surprise and the amount of detail in both tracks ("schrapnell" and "spam") is incredible.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 12:25 (twenty years ago)

or rather, it took me 2 listens to get used to the fact that i was listening to Isolee.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 12:42 (twenty years ago)

Oooh I got this in the post the other day - it's excellent. I like the twangy Duane Eddy guitar one.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 12:49 (twenty years ago)

yeah, i heard the same two tracks as you, jed, which is prob why "schrapnell" is so firmly stuck in my head. is "spam" called "do re mi" now?

― toby (tsg20), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 13:05 (twenty years ago)

that's "schrapnell" JtN! ive no idea abotu "spam", toby.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 13:38 (twenty years ago)

I am loving it so far. I'm now wondering if he was ever "micro-house" at all. The sound is so lush.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Saturday, 16 April 2005 17:30 (twenty years ago)

my electronic album of the year so far, no contest. coming to glasgow in july - woot!

'spam' (or whatever it is now called) and 'schrapnel' always have about 20 people queuing up to download them if i ever use limewire. i was surprised he is so popular.

― stirmonster (stirmonster), Saturday, 16 April 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

and yes, it is really lush. i always consider 'beau mot plage' to be thee micro-house anthem but this is something else. disco macro-house?

― stirmonster (stirmonster), Saturday, 16 April 2005 17:56 (twenty years ago)

It's so warm, maybe like a micro-daft punk.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Saturday, 16 April 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

i'm loving this album, too. he previewed some of the tracks at mutek last year and it was probably my favorite night out of 2004. the tracks sound so good on a big system. they all have this almost deceptive level of depth to them which is probably what also made "beau mot plage" so good. the tracks with guitars on this put all corny indie fuxxtronica to shame. the melancholic and euphoric elements (or tension/release) on this album are immaculate. the bassline on "face b" would make ed rush proud. woo!!

― prada robot (disco stu), Saturday, 16 April 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

"Today" has a very A.R. Kane-ish vibe.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Saturday, 16 April 2005 18:46 (twenty years ago)

i love the way he uses the entire soundfield for all of the squelchy bass. this album has a really well designed or economical usage of sound, too. it's kind of like nothing takes precedence over anything else.

― prada robot (disco stu), Saturday, 16 April 2005 18:55 (twenty years ago)

Putting the D back in IDM.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Saturday, 16 April 2005 20:10 (twenty years ago)

yo!! what up D?!!

― prada robot (disco stu), Saturday, 16 April 2005 22:01 (twenty years ago)

Where you been the past ten years?!?

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Sunday, 17 April 2005 00:00 (twenty years ago)

no shit, but was idm really ever for dancing? on the recent "recommend me some idm" thread i almost listed basic channel, but i couldn't because bc is techno. i was happy to see someone else list it, but still it doesn't seem right. i think i listed pole instead. with idm i have the spliff smoking robot from the warp comp embedded in my brain so it's always about the coffee table more than the dancefloor. short of stuff like sweet exorcist (which is really not idm to begin with), i can't think of much idm that has ever been dancefloor oriented. the first autechre album? "didgeridoo" wasn't even idm. and here's where i say idm is a shit genre name to begin with.

anyway, the reason i am posting to this thread is because i wanted to ask, how fucking great would it be if isolee remixed recloose's "dust" the way he did "cardiology". that remix was so huge!!

― prada robot (disco stu), Sunday, 17 April 2005 05:40 (twenty years ago)

Yes, IDM was never really dancefloor material to begin with. I was bascially commenting on how with every passing year, producers have been reducing the "D" and the "M" to miniscule levels, and just giving us straight "I." More D please.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Sunday, 17 April 2005 05:52 (twenty years ago)

Is the album at all like the "Cardiology" remix or "Can't Sleep All Night"? I love love love both of those.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 17 April 2005 06:28 (twenty years ago)

Scrapnell reminds me alot of some Northern soul tune i can't quite put my finger on.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 17 April 2005 13:00 (twenty years ago)

'stand by me'? kinda, at times

― hold tight the private caller (mwah), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 07:31 (twenty years ago)

album of the year so far for me.

funny moment of the weekend: at an afterparty in cuernavaca, mexico. luciano and mike shannon are DJing. i start to hear isolee's recloose remix fade in, walk over to where he's standing shirtless by the swimming pool (i shit you not, this party was like "mutek: the reality show" - it would've been on some ubercoolische parody shit if it weren't so bizarre), and tell him that it was one of my fave tracks of last year. isolee: "what is it?" and then about 3 seconds later he covers his face in his hands when he realizes it's his, cracking up.

to be fair, it was a long week. and his live set was fantastic, totally gloopy and overblown, just like the record.

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 20:03 (twenty years ago)

This is really good, and i was totally expecting some more rhythmic nebulousness, but it was a lot more BEAT than I expected.

― Lethal Dizzle (djdee2005), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 20:06 (twenty years ago)

the whole things melts so pretty like.

― jermaine (jnoble), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 20:59 (twenty years ago)

gloopy/melts are good words. it's like kelis' ice cream cone has succumbed to the heat and humidiy of summer, but it's still so sweet...(not there are many vocals on this album, i was more after the image)

― prada robot (disco stu), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 23:45 (twenty years ago)

i'm loving this right now. but i'm stuck on track three midway, not wanting it to get bad. and also needing a time to process it. i'm not sure how to describe it. is this idm? feels sorta like a shoegazer doing dance/IDM tracks to me on first track.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 25 April 2005 07:09 (twenty years ago)

mmmm the sounds are nice and thick - not that separated stringy stuff

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 25 April 2005 07:19 (twenty years ago)

oooo...its getting more good!

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 25 April 2005 07:26 (twenty years ago)

track five is insanely good-esp. toward middle/end.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 25 April 2005 07:30 (twenty years ago)

It's still a bit early, but I don't know if we'll see a better electronic/house record this year.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Monday, 25 April 2005 08:11 (twenty years ago)

i really love this - and i've listened to barely any techno/house/electronica this year, nor did i really want to, either.

― stelfox, Monday, 25 April 2005 10:25 (twenty years ago)

i got stuck on track 5 till 3am last nite. i'm afraid to go any further - i skipped over track 6 and tried a little bit of 7 - it seemed pretty good.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 25 April 2005 15:26 (twenty years ago)

there's a subltle part on track 5 where it builds up to make a transition and then there is these high pitched glassy sounds - like glass breaking but in same key as previous sounds - i know its just a synthesizer effect but its kinda amazing. felt really like mathematical and spatial.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 25 April 2005 15:42 (twenty years ago)

i want philip's life.

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 25 April 2005 15:51 (twenty years ago)

hahaha.... i was waiting for someone to express the requisite jealousy! thank you, mark. i feel validated now.

still record of the year for me, and moreso every day, if that's possible.

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Monday, 25 April 2005 16:31 (twenty years ago)

i'm still on track five. i like the retro electronica thing (maybe just on this track) i think he's doing. i.e when i hear the hornish/brass sounds and that running type tempo - running gloriously toward the "new world" or whatever. it makes you feel corny and excited! i don't have any examples but wasn't that strong in the early 80's? all i can think of is donald fagan-different music kinda but give you similar sentiment.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 17:39 (twenty years ago)

i want philip's life too

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 17:48 (twenty years ago)

what am I missing >:O the only track I'm feeling is "Schrapnell"

― W i l l (common_person), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 17:50 (twenty years ago)

this record is absolutely amazing.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 09:43 (twenty years ago)

every track has so many ideas, it's like they begin and you think "well this is a nice groove", and then more parts keep coming in, like even in the last 30 seconds of some of the tracks something totally new and different will come in, it's so unpredictable and it gives it this massive depth.

So good to have a record you can really dive into!

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 09:45 (twenty years ago)

This is good - it reminds me of a slightly more beefed up Plaid, which is a very good thing!

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 10:18 (twenty years ago)

Ha ha Ronan has now been totally naturalized as a microhouse fan!

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 21:06 (twenty years ago)

haha it's true, but I think alot of it is to do with the way electrohouse and microhouse have slowly fused together, particularly in the last 6-9 months. I have been buying loads of micro stuff lately though, not least cos I feel the really huge electro anthems have kind of ceased to exist in the last 6 months or so, in favour of really epic minimal records.

I am quite pleased to note I actually have alot of "Today" on vinyl of my own accord. I'd been starting my mixes off with "Spark" too.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 6 May 2005 11:59 (twenty years ago)

"schrapnell" is ear candy. sooooooo amazing.

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 6 May 2005 12:19 (twenty years ago)

ronan, you totally hit the nail on the head right there - you're right, even at the end of a track some little melodic element will make its cameo and the whole thing will change once more. it's as busy as an episode of arrested development or the simpsons.

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Friday, 6 May 2005 13:28 (twenty years ago)

it's as busy as an episode of arrested development

they should put that on a sticker on the cover.

― stirmonster (stirmonster), Friday, 6 May 2005 13:45 (twenty years ago)

yeah they should.

― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 6 May 2005 13:54 (twenty years ago)

"Schrapnell" worked perfectly as my driving-around-the-desert near Coachella soundtrack all last weekend.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 6 May 2005 16:06 (twenty years ago)

There are so many wonderful tracks on this - there's not as much willful oddness as on Rest (Wearemonster is always listenable). However, the highs of Rest ("Beau Mot Plage" "Djamel Et Jamshid" "Logiciel" "Keep On Dancin'") remain my favorite Isolee moments.

What track should Anu Pillai work into a Freeform Reform trilogy???

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 6 May 2005 16:44 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 226 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Robin, I'd say it was because it Beau Mot Plage & Keep On Dancing were already on previous 12 inch singles, but that doesn't explain why the entire "I Owe You" single is on the Rest vinyl...

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Monday, 3 July 2006 03:09 (nineteen years ago)

i dunno, that 'rave is king' t-shirt design is a little too minimal and tasteful for me...not nearly cheesy enough. where are the bubbly day-glo letters, fractals, and cartoons of astronauts and the simpsons and shit?

― geeta (geeta), Monday, 3 July 2006 07:20 (nineteen years ago)

To be fair to the Villalobos T-shirt it doesn't have his face on the front and tour dates on the back, just the word "Venceremos" ("we shall overcome") in an arty font on the front. Even people who know Villalobos would be unlikely to know it was a "band t-shirt".

― jimnaseum (jimnaseum), Monday, 3 July 2006 07:33 (nineteen years ago)

nine months pass...

haha , i heard face b in a restaurant tonight!

― lfam, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 00:11 (eighteen years ago)

I bought this album less than a week ago, nearly two years late, ha.

Either way, I knew it was supposed to be good, but certainly not this good!

― mehlt, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 00:16 (eighteen years ago)

hooray

― lfam, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 00:17 (eighteen years ago)

oh! it's the best

xpost

― lfam, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 00:17 (eighteen years ago)

when I have to work 14 hour days I usually end up listening to this album on repeat for 12 of them (I switch over to the new Radicalfashion for the last 2)

― bernard snowy, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 00:56 (eighteen years ago)

what happened to the rest of the thread?? I didn't start this!

― fandango, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 07:36 (eighteen years ago)

oh no

― lfam, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 07:43 (eighteen years ago)

weird

― blueski, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 10:44 (eighteen years ago)

what happened to the rest of the thread?? I didn't start this!
And you certainly didn't start it in 2001 as it says up the top!

― jim, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 10:59 (eighteen years ago)

i think the second post was originally the first post of the thread

― Michael F Gill, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 11:26 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, seriously how did that happen. I was looking at it going "how come I'm always the last to know about every thing, I only heard about this two years ago!"

― I know, right?, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 11:31 (eighteen years ago)

mod req thread: http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=56&threadid=1646#unread

― lfam, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 13:24 (eighteen years ago)

ha, i thought it was weird, as i remembered starting this thread, but didin't notice the timestamp oddness.

― toby, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 21:21 (eighteen years ago)

'my hi-matic' adheres to a verse-chorus-verse-chorus format and several of the other tracks do, too.

Not really to me. There is a verse, but no chorus as such. Yes, it's different from the verse but the "chorus" sections are sort of downers. I'd prefer just a constantly building verse.

― Spencer Chow, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 21:43 (eighteen years ago)

i used to like that restaurant but then they got a new staff, and the worst service in the world, and kicked all the unique dishes, so now it's just another hip nu-italian joint in the coral gables restaurant district, across the street from the scientology building.

― lfam, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 21:56 (eighteen years ago)

hmmm...

― Spencer Chow, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 21:58 (eighteen years ago)

that sounds the suck.

― the table is the table, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 22:06 (eighteen years ago)

one month passes...

i just heard my hi-matic on npr

― elan, Saturday, 23 June 2007 19:32 (eighteen years ago)

four weeks pass...

i just found a wearemonster t-shirt, white with the pattern from the inside sleeve to the lp, size L, unworn (because i have another one just like it). first one to email me gets it.

― tricky, Sunday, 22 July 2007 01:35 (eighteen years ago)

for free?

― bernard snowy, Sunday, 22 July 2007 01:42 (eighteen years ago)

yes. maybe you could help me with postage if you don't live in the states.

― tricky, Sunday, 22 July 2007 01:44 (eighteen years ago)

did you get my messages? i can't tell if they went through

― lucas pine, Sunday, 22 July 2007 01:49 (eighteen years ago)

no, maybe the ilx email server is misbehaving.

tricky disco at gmail

― tricky, Sunday, 22 July 2007 01:58 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

this album still rules

that is all

― Drew Daniel, Saturday, 4 October 2008 16:55 (seventeen years ago)

indeed it does

― the lord of overstock (ciderpress), Saturday, 4 October 2008 18:33 (seventeen years ago)

schrapnell was my ringtone for AGES

― cutty, Saturday, 4 October 2008 20:15 (seventeen years ago)

This Album!

― Cars That Go Boom (mehlt), Saturday, 4 October 2008 21:03 (seventeen years ago)

Amazing. Still listen to it once a week.

― paulhw, Saturday, 4 October 2008 22:56 (seventeen years ago)

seven months pass...

ok i was in a dept store and heard a pop/r&b tune that i swear was built on the riff from schrapnell. anyone know what this is (or is it the other way around?)

― Swat Valley High (goole), Thursday, 21 May 2009 04:26 (sixteen years ago)

really, nobody?

― Swat Valley High (goole), Thursday, 21 May 2009 18:42 (sixteen years ago)

one year passes...

They've been using "Schrapnell" for a while as the theme music to the New Yorker's fiction podcast.

― with hidden noise, Saturday, 17 July 2010 19:14 (fifteen years ago)

I finally, after so many years, got my hands on real copy of Rest a few hours ago. Stumbled upon it used, and bam, it's mine :D

This album is definitely top 10 of the 00's for me.

― Where Time Becomes A Loop, Where Time Becomes Aloof (EDB), Sunday, 18 July 2010 02:40 (fifteen years ago)

six months pass...

oh my god why have I neglect listening to this guy for all these last few years

stupid ex that is why

but now I'm making up for the lost time

― Umm, I think that's my glass. (laser precise purpose maker era), Tuesday, 25 January 2011 03:57 (fourteen years ago)

just sayin that the new album is....um...kind of really boring?

― tbf explicitly gay albums aren't quite as cultural (the table is the table), Tuesday, 25 January 2011 04:56 (fourteen years ago)

yeah it's not great. i was gonna give it the benefit of the doubt, then i put wearemonster on again and was like, actually, no, this has nothing on that.

― lextasy refix (lex pretend), Tuesday, 25 January 2011 08:36 (fourteen years ago)

New album is better than Wearemonster but not as good as the debut. Wearemonster is Isolee being very simple and floor-oriented. The new one is a good blend of the previous two albums.

― brotherlovesdub, Tuesday, 25 January 2011 23:29 (fourteen years ago)

interviewed him today, and let me tell you, Rajko is one of the nicest guys i've ever interviewed, after Mr. G maybe.

anyway, i listened to it again, and it does have some good tracks, but it's no Wearemonster. and definitely fucking not Western Store.

― tbf explicitly gay albums aren't quite as cultural (the table is the table), Wednesday, 26 January 2011 06:04 (fourteen years ago)

like, so many of the little flourishes and ornamentation that made those records so heady are just absent. the October/Nightingale single beats the record by like, a fucking lap and a half, imo

― tbf explicitly gay albums aren't quite as cultural (the table is the table), Wednesday, 26 January 2011 06:06 (fourteen years ago)

one month passes...

Let me get this right, Pampa reissue Wearemonster along with previously vinyl only tracks....and instead of including Are You Gonna Make It (a track that only appeared on the vinyl release of the album), Pampa decided to include the readily available Can't Sleep All Night, Lost, and Hermelin? Maybe I still have yet to get over losing my digital copy of Are You Gonna Make It, but this strikes me as willfully stupid.

― Jedmond, Sunday, 27 February 2011 13:40 (fourteen years ago)

here

― elan, Monday, 28 February 2011 00:01 (fourteen years ago)

here

― elan, Monday, 28 February 2011 00:01 (fourteen years ago)

-1

― elan, Monday, 28 February 2011 00:04 (fourteen years ago)

Thanks, greatly appreciated. Now that I've re-listened to Are You Gonna Make It I can carefully confirm that leaving it off the reissue was really stupid. Did I mention Lost had been edited as well?

― Jedmond, Monday, 28 February 2011 00:36 (fourteen years ago)

Is it the "Forever Lost" edit by The Glimmers that came out on Western Store Edits Pt. 2?

Can't Sleep All Night is an awesome Isolee song -- very Rest-y.

― elan, Monday, 28 February 2011 04:20 (fourteen years ago)

Also, I think the best non-album Isolee cut is It's About: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY9x9xUZWtY

― elan, Monday, 28 February 2011 04:21 (fourteen years ago)

Oh that video has a voiceover, too bad.

― elan, Monday, 28 February 2011 04:22 (fourteen years ago)

x post

I don't know - I've only seen the track listing and times - but there was no mention of the Glimmers. I agree Can't Sleep All Night is fantastic - Rest-esque, but with some of the gloopy thickness that Wearemonster brought. It's not that the added tracks are weak, they just wouldn't have been my first choice. I know licensing might have been an issue but it would have been far more handy if Are You Gonna Make It, Brazil.com, French Fries, It's About et al had been included. In other words, an Easternstore would be a fantastic thing.

― Jedmond, Monday, 28 February 2011 04:33 (fourteen years ago)

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