ISAN
's ninth album contains the type of pleasant, richly detailed electronic music they've been consistently crafting since the mid-'90s, but this time it sounds slightly dissolved, and a bit washed-out. It brings to mind the miniature, raindrop-like arrangements and innocent melodies of Japan-based duo
Lullatone
, forming a complex web of soft textures and criss-crossing beats. The drum machines gently drip and trickle, and the synth tones sparkle and shimmer, sometimes seeming a bit random at first but quickly falling into clever patterns. It's warm and accessible, yet still somewhat reserved, and strange enough to avoid drifting into audio wallpaper. "Memory Cascades" features an insistent rumble that makes the track seem like trudging through thick, freshly fallen snow on a day off from school. The splendidly titled "Ichthyosaur" (named after an extinct species of marine reptiles) starts off with a sprinkling of prickly tones, then settles into an upbeat pattern of rapidly pulsating blip-beats, gradually protruding upward. The bubbly melodies of "Ephemeroptera" sneakily shift up and down in tempo, gradually disintegrating into a vast, glowing pool. "Calliscope" begins unassumingly, then after the particles begin to coalesce, a rickety, blunted-sounding beat drops, sounding like
's wholly welcome attempt at making wonky hip-hop. "Lamenting Machine" is a similar combination of trippy beat trickery and soft, stirring melodies, rounding out another winning release from
. ~ Paul Simpson