Isidor - 3218

(Self-release 2017)

There are albums you love wholeheartedly and albums you appreciate for being clever, well-made pieces of music, but which give you no feels. 3218 goes into the second category for me. This is clever, well-made music that does nothing for me.



First let me talk about what I like. Isidor deftly navigates the barrier between Neon Miami 1985 and Satanic Skrillex. In a sense, 3218 is what you might expect if Dan Terminus and Mitch Murder ever made an album together. The opener, "Star Sherriff" starts off as high-energy aerobics music before it morphs into chugging, EDM-tinted darksynth. Then the two halves mash together. It's brilliant. The rest of the album has a similar feel--it toys with your expectations and goes places you don't expect it to. The mix is also wonderfully clear and balanced.

On the other hand, 3218 is irritatingly loud and undynamic. In fact, I found it physically painful at times. And, as I mention earlier, I just didn't feel much when listening to it. There are a couple exceptions, like "Touch the Sky," which features nice ethereal vocals, and the ambient "Secrets of the Universe." In general, though, I kept wanting 3218 to go places it doesn't want to go, and not go to the places it does. Take "Stardust," for example, which starts with a really nice melody until it shifts into chugging-bass/Satanic-Skrillex gear--which ruined the track for me. So while I find 3218 impressive, I also have to conclude that it just isn't my cup of tea.

Score: 7.5