Isan Salamander CD

One has to appreciate anybody who tries to toss a little good humor into the po-faced playground of electronic instrumentalists. Which is why it was easy to smile at the soundtrack-to-an-imaginary-children's-show template of isan's early work. The trouble with Salamander is that one wishes the band would finally change the channel every once in awhile. This effort does feel different than past works, but in a bad way. Instead of floating along a wash of melodic assurance in works like Beautronics or Digitalis, this album constantly feels distracted. The flow is stop-start and haggard, as if isan is so bent on infusing humor into the electronic scene that they are unintentionally decreasing their attention span with every release. "Braille Foundry," for example, closes off the album with repetitive (yet touching) circles of tunefulness, and "Effekl" is Vangelis' Blade Runner score if it got distracted from the monotone adults and just started to play paddle-ball. Even these very defective highlights, though, only heighten the failed roundabouts of the other songs surrounding them. So it's possible Salamander will be a signal to the band that merely going against the tide of a genre can only go so far. Fans can only hope that isan will soon find that remote control and once again prove their unpretentious talents are just aching for new -- and interesting -- experiments in sound. ~ Dean Carlson