Isolee

the new single's a little blah, straightahead techhouse with some neat sounds but none of the sense of melody of playfulness of wearemonster

curious

HOlding anyone up to the standard of Wearemonster is flat out unfair!

Well how about holding the single up against the rest of Isolee's catalogue? Oh wait that's still unfair. I guess you're right that the single is fantastic when compared to pretty much any other techhouse I've heard, but....

I have to admit I was a bit surprised by the release - after his recent remix of the Imps I was more worried his new work would be a bit aimless rather than focussed but blah techhouse with neat sounds.

Haven't heard the single. How is that IMPS CD? (I asked on another thread but got no response :( )

I've only heard it in bits and pieces as the 12"s were released - I would say its a by-the-numbers release - but considering the people involved - fehlmann, isolee, jelinek, etc that it is still pretty damn good. The Strategy remix was a pretty nice surpise. I wasn't expecting anything much from him - but he provided a nice piece of cartoonish bump.

I shouldn't be too mean to October yet - have only listened to it a couple of times. It's just that I was appalled by the idea of not judging Isolee by his previous work - I like judging Isolee by Isolee standards because he's spent a decade or so meeting them.

is this on playhouse? bizarre, i hadn't heard anything about it....

it's on diynamic

xxpost: I think you were taking me a bit too seriously (though I have bought many records on the basis of 'this is the guy who made wearemonster') Just saying it's a hell of mark to meet, for anyone.

Don't worry I wasn't taking you too seriously (hell, I/everybody knows Wearemonster was a let down after Can't Sleep All night).

october is fucking great

way more restrained but it's still got all his lovely little twists and turns in the arrangement

the 'fun' is all under the surface of that very generic pad stab

can't wait from another album from this guy

October would be much better if the first 2-3 minutes were just cut. On the other hand Isolee's Albacares 12" for Mule is classic, tied together with a lovely goofy guitar loop. It almost makes the October 12" a deliberate slap in Diynamic's face - deny me my Stefan Marx cover etc.

^^ yes this new one on mule is great, b-side track is funky as hell too

Just catching up (a few months late) with "October" - which I do like a lot, but OH MY GOD THE B-SIDE ("A Nightingale") - a wonderful creation, full of unexpected twists and turns. Surprised that it hasn't been talked about here at all?

New album in January. :)

YESSSSSSSSSS

Details from Resident Advisor

http://www.residentadvisor.net/images/news/2010/isolee-well-spent-youth.jpg

Isolee's next album is called Well Spent Youth, and will come out on January 21st via DJ Koze's Pampa Records.

Real name Raijko Mueller, Isolee is one of the most acclaimed producers of the past decade, thanks to his lush but minimalist style of house music. His early singles on Playhouse helped lay the foundation for microhouse in the '00s, especially 1998's Beau Mot Plage. Seven years later he released We Are Monster, an album that cemented his reputation as one of electronic music's richest talents and remains something of a classic today. Since then his output has slowed, with just a few EPs and compilation appearances in the past few years, though this fall he released a new 12-inch on Dial, The Fantastic Researches Of Yushin Maru.

Well Spent Youth features 11 new tracks by Mueller, making it his biggest release since We Are Monsters. It also marks the first album on DJ Koze's Pampa Records.

Tracklist
01. Paloma Triste
02. Thirteen Times an Hour
03. Taktell
04. Journey's End
05. Going Nowhere
06. One Box
07. Celeste
08. Trop Pres De Toi (97' Interlude)
09. Hold On
10. Transmission
11. In Our Country Paloma Triste

ooh good - really liked the albacares ep from last year

oh and its on pampa!

can't wait, this is great news

Psyched for this. Might be time to dig out Wearemonster again.

When is it not time to!

ooh good - really liked the albacares ep from last year

― cherry blossom, Thursday, 25 November 2010 15:43 (8 minutes ago)

yeah, and october/nightingale were awesome too

he's super talented no doubt

2011 hasn't even begun and we already have the album of the year, mean ol' Pampa for letting it leak so early.

holy shit, rapidshare is fast!

― ken taylrr has gone off the internet because of you (ken taylrr), Monday, 3 October 2005 21:12 (5 years ago)

want!

this is very good. wearemonster was super tuneful but this is more restrained, no really obvious standout tracks but the quality of the architecture is unmistakeable. reminds me a little of newworldaquarium's 'the dead bears' from a few years ago.

This splits the difference between Rest and Wearemonster. Pretty incredible album. Heavy replay value.

yeah i've had it playing pretty consistently for the last three days. i've never quite loved 'rest', although it must have seemed pretty amazing in 2000. wearemonster was of course great, but i think i like his recent singles more than either of them.

I think I'll go with that as well, summery is wrong, but Isolee's restraint gives the tracks a certain lightness of touch that belies the tracks' compulsive details. Hearing Paloma Triste on Isolee's Beats in Space session (plus the relatively reduced length of the album tracks) had lead me to suspect that he'd turned Well Spent Youth into an outlet for his more tuneful work, but I'm kind of happy he followed through with the numbed* trackiness of his recent singles.

*High compliment obviously.

Just became obsessed with We Are Monster after revisiting it this year. My tastes are at a point where I like more than ever since it came out.

There are worse places to be - just make sure you have his Hermelin EP, and The Jacko Theme, both are continuations/improvements of his Monster style.

hermelin is only thing of is i didn't rate

~his~

I've never loved the track Hermelin wholeheartedly, but Sleazy Bee sounds like g-funk made out of drool and slobber - and all the better for it, while Willy Skipper's gradual transmogrification into an oily acid belter marks the peak of Isolee's constant-mutation approach.

If you ask me, the whole Hermelin EP is entirely ace

Incredible Isolee mix on this weeks Resident Advisor podcast.

I would def take rest over wearemonster, always felt like the latter’s acclaim was a little ott

agreed, I do like “today” off wearemonster a lot, though, it reminds me of flash and the pan or something

I actually listened to Wearemonster recently for the first time in many years and was mostly like yeah this bangs

Wearemonster is not as good as Rest, and yes some of the acclaim was more reflective of how Isolee's rep had grown in the interim (Rest and Vocalcity both had a lot of people playing catch-up between 2001 and 2003, but Isolee more than most probably got a boost from the crossover acclaim for Alchachofa as well) than of the album itself, but it's still pretty great, and its layered mutating disco sound really caught the moment, it feels a bit like a prequel to the first Lindstrom and Prins Thomas album that came out later in the year.

the packaging of “rest” is timeless and classic, that probably rubs off on how i hear the music (vs his other efforts)

they just reissued the holy garage remix single, which has 1996 isolee on one nice and 1996 losoul on the other, their remixes neatly encapsulate their dynamic

I always liked Wearemonster better for whatever reason

I never got the ambivalence towards wearemonster, or the idea that it pales compared to rest. To me it’s such a high-water mark of my favourite dance-music sounds, whereas Rest is great but never had that kind of gut-level feeing. The Stefan Marx covers on isolee releases feel more classic to me too, compared to Rest. But Wearemonster also has the benefit of being released at a formative time for me, so I may be biased. But I also just love about everything isolee does and have huge respect for him, so I suppose I don’t really care which album is less good.

for me it’s something like this: isolee and losoul stand in front of a bubbling cauldron, asking themselves “what can we possibly add to improve this heady minimal house brew?” after some consideration, one of them says “i know, we’ll add a generous splash of post rock!”

and the soup was forever ruined

"my hi-matic" is one of my fav tracks ever, it goes on a whole ass fantasy adventure without ever feeling like it's breaking minimal house kayfabe like some of the other tracks do