When I first got introduced to Isis it was through the Celestial album. The very first thing that caught my attention and sucked me in was its fat bass chest penetrating sound. Removed far away from groove, it was a full low frequency assault on the subwoofers and that what made Isis vibrates across the oceans of this planet even with its little production imperfections.Isis crossed a long road since then, evolving as a band and in sound. With Wavering Radiant the whale is reaching out to the surface for some air
and sun rays instead of creating massive deep sea currents.
A turn off for some and a welcome change for others, one should blame or praise Tool for it.
Joe Barresi (Tool, The Melvins, Queens of The Stone age etc…) stepped in this time to prove everyone’s opinion on the strong connection between Tool and Isis. While pushing the bass more into the picture with a clearer image and a stronger presence, there is a disturbing imbalance between the lower and higher frequencies. There’s a clear line separating the sound of each instrument on this album instead of unity. It’s becoming obvious that Isis is trying to regenerate a new flesh to cover its bass skeleton, but it’s not thick enough to take a full shape. The detuned guitars could have helped reaching the new perfect shape if there was more emphasis on power chords as featured on the track Hand of The Host (starting at 8:27 and on) and on the first two and the half minutes of the bulldozing beginning of Threshold of Transformation which will make any Isis diehard on seventh heaven instead of the higher chords dominating the entire album. But the main key for the full sound potential in here lies in the drum sound rather than the guitars or the varied well crafted dense layers. And this is the major drawback on this album. Isis and Joe’s decision for a more “refined” and “uptight” drum sound caused the imbalance in delivering the goods, like a shy boy sitting in the corner afraid of speaking his mind out. I think Terry Date could have stepped in here just perfectly with his classic groovy drum kick, sharp hi-hat and the huge over the wall crash sound which could have supplied the extra punch and dynamics lacking on this album’s production. Joe’s skills worked perfectly for Queens of The Stone Age and Tool, but the formula cannot be applied here. Isis deserves something of a different nature to suit its expression.
Even though Wavering Radiant is a step forward in sound production for Isis with its thick, warm, summer-like ambiance, there’s still plenty of room for improvement and originality.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI have read both your reviews about these bands and am wondering why you would call this blog Tactile Sound. You refer mostly to the ambient atmosphere, the sounds that instruments create and the overall experience of music. Where is the tactility here. Touch is a physical sense of immediatecy, presence and not one that needs a reflexive thought.
Am I making sense here?
Hello Luke,
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading and commenting. You do make sense indeed, but you're taking things way too literally. Most descent sound systems these days do have a "shaker"/"tactile transducer" which adds more to the listening experience. And, I believe that we first "feel" the music then we hear it later on and focus on all the sounds, or at least that's how my own process of listening to music is. It's from this sense of "feeling" the sound first in our own body we start to reflect upon the music and its sound layers, therefore the name Tactile Sound for this blog. It's definitely not focused on the tactile sound itself by all means, it's just a key element for me through the listening experience, which I believe is the very core of all sounds and music that surround us.
Reviews will never focus on tactility, but on the sound itself and the atmosphere as you have already stated. The name was certainly not chosen to reflect the nature of the reviews presented here in any way. It's more of a personal choice/approach rather than a standard name made to fit a specific thing.
Hope this made some sense somehow.