ISAN - Plans Drawn In Pencil

The bucolic electronic of Isan has drawn them comparisons to Boards of Canada, but that’s misleading. _Plans Drawn in Pencil_ has the simple schematic design as the title suggest. Their melodies are clean and relatively unadorned ("Ship"); oftentimes, percussion is nothing more than a simple tick ("Look and Yes"). The oscillating "Yttrium" sounds as rarefied as the element after which it’s named, while "Amber Button" has some interesting decay mechanics before filling in. You’d expect a track named "Roadrunner" to race ahead, but this isn’t the case. Instead, it builds sonically, in careful layers. The tracks are simple and pleasant, but can still convey a range of emotional states: "Stickland" carries a certain sadness, for example. While nothing on this album has the pure wow factor, it still manages to be a pleasing listening experience.