Fisk Industries
The Isle Of Wight EP
(Highpoint Lowlife)
Although their overall quality control has slipped a bit lately, Warp Records is no doubt responsible for influencing hundreds, if not thousands of different groups and artists. From the kids sitting in their bedrooms churning out pieces on bootlegged software that will never see the light of day to complete genres and even similar-sounding labels, Warp was no doubt a forerunner in the electronic music genre. I only mention all of the above because this 25-minute EP by Fisk Industries definitely sounds like it was cut from the Warp Records cloth. Although I've heard several releases on the Highpoint Lowlife label (all of them quite different), Fisk Industries hails from the Boards Of Canada vs early-era Warp school (aka B12 or early Autechre) of lovely melodies versus spaced out bleeps and medium-chunky beats.
The opening track of "We Saw Orion" makes that very clear as a stuttering vocal loop skips across a slamming beat while squiggled bleeps and bloops fill in the gaps. Towards the latter third of the track, the whole thing breaks down into a soft ambience which then bleeds nicely into the album-titled track of "The Isle Of Wight," a melodic IDM track that builds from soft palettes of synth into a soft shaker of a track that gurgles with deep low-end and a thick rhythm. "Can't Breathe" takes things to a more playful place, bursting with Plaid-esque melodies that float over a distorted, clanging beat while "Last Flight Sonic" mixes shuffling beats with more dark synth pads.
The standout on the release is "Poltype," a somewhat micro-programmed track that builds a nice amount of tension from gradually filtered beats that turn more and more sinister as the track progresses while beats pitter and patter all over and soft synth waves roll across the top of it all. Based on the above assessment, you probably already know if this is something up your alley, but I'll go ahead and mention again that if you're looking for something that sounds like a whole smorgasboard of mid to late 90s era Warp artists mashed together in a good way, this solid EP will be right up your alley.
Rating: 7.25
