FSOL* – ISDN

While this CD is usually considered FSOL's 3rd album... Its not an actual studio album. These 15 tracks are actually tracks that FSOL played over an ISDN internet hook-up throughout 1993 and 1994. So this isn't exactly an album with a theme or story to tell.. as most tracks were recorded days, weeks and months apart.

Still though.. there is some good music on here. Most of these songs have a lot more drum work in them then FSOL fans were used to. Also is the inclusion of jazz influence in a couple tracks. The outcome works well though and this is a compilation of dark tracks. My personally favorite is Amoeba.. almost an alien sounding drum beat.

This album, with its esoteric artwork and sleeve notes and track titles that explain so little, is often looked at the outcast of the FSOL catalogue. A lot of people say that this album is "creepy", or "evil", or that there is very little musically to grab onto (in stark contrast to their early work). I personally feel, however, that ISDN is the pinnacle of their work: a complete vision of the new and flavorful patchwork that these two guys wanted to bring at the height of their career.<P>No one song on this album jumps out at you and grabs you, instead the album just slinks by in a flurry of bizarre vocal snippets, jagged drum loops, keyboard splotches, guitar stabs, muted horns and unsettling moments of clattering ambience. However, with repeated listens I find that this album really molds itself around you and demonstrates a stunning breadth of skill. "Smokin' Japanese Babe" holds up a broken mirror to Portishead and Massive Attack, "It's My Mind That Works" and "Dirty Shadows" walk a finer line than any track on the "Lifeforms" album, and tracks like "Kai" and "The Far Out Son..." interlock wildly disparate parts into a kind of gritty future hip-hop. All the tracks work splendidly together, and the best ones stand on their own as true gems of improvisation. Truly essential listening for people who want to know how far electronic music can really stretch itself.