Album Review: Islet - Celebrate This Place
- Written by Holly Arrowsmith
When a band is so new that they’re on their first release, it can be difficult to write about them. It’s even harder when Islet are a band that are almost impossible to track down online. Unusually for 2010, there’s no MySpace page, no Facebook link to ‘like’, and no philosophical rambles from the band on Twitter - fabulous in one sense, because it brings back the idea of a band being inaccessible and mysterious. It’ll probably annoy most of the music press because they can’t have a cheeky looksy on Google to pad out a feature, mind. Following the release of their free EP given away as part of Turnstile’s ‘Bento’ series, Celebrate this Place serves to further deepen the intrigue that surrounds Islet.
One of Islet’s main selling points is that the show they put on when you see them live is fabulously entertaining- swapping instruments, walking into the crowd, and basically acting like they’ve just been let out. Before listening to Celebrate This, it was hard to imagine how they would come across on record, but thankfully the songs are still as engaging to listen to.
EP opener ‘We Shall Visit’ is almost proggy in its initial approach, with hypnotic vocals that wouldn’t sound out of place in a tribal ceremony. Then the drums and the ‘proper’ singing both kick in, and it’s impossible not to want to move about to it. It’s fortunate that Islet manage to pull this off- in lesser hands, it could be seen as a cheesy call for attention.
It isn’t often that an instrumental can be classed as a standout track, but Islet change this with ‘Jasmine’. Apart from a repetitive female vocal, it allows the band to completely lose themselves in their music, and it’s ace; like Kate Bush if she’d been wearing a loincloth and wielding an electric guitar, perhaps. ‘Iris’ is similar in the sense that it takes in loads of different influences, but its definitely one of the heavier tracks on the EP, with solid, jerky guitar riffs jelling perfectly with the howling group vocals. Then there’s ‘Holly’, which begins in the same proggy vein as ‘We Shall Visit’, before turning into a reggae-tinged tale of obsession. It’s all brilliantly nuts.
Islet definitely work best when they’re sounding urgent and angry- closing track ‘Rowan’, which is so ambient that it sounds almost church-like, just comes across as a bit boring after how exciting the other tracks are. Other than that, while Islet are never going to set the chart world alight- they’re far too weird really- Celebrate This Place is a great, playful taster of what’s to come. Can someone show them how the Internet works now?