Isis and Aereogramme - In the Fishtank 14

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RIYL

Red Sparowes
Isis
Aereogramme
Pelican
Radiohead

Tracklist

1. Low Tide
2. Delial
3. Stolen

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The In the Fish Tank series is a brilliant idea. Find two bands of kindred, but unobvious, spirit and throw them in a room for a day to see what they can come up with. It's a new take on an old favorite: the split EP. Instead of trading tracks, these groups have to force themselves to mesh their decidedly different sounds into one (or, in this case, three) coherent musical statement.

If you've heard both Isis and Aereogramme, you still won't be able to link their combined sounds in your head right away. When "Low Tide" kicks the album off, you're stuck with a more Red Sparowes-ish sound, which leans very heavily toward the Isis side of things in that Red Sparowes shares members, and slightly to the Aereogramme side in that it's a more plodding track, while letting neither really shine. This is not to say, by any means, that "Low Tide" is a bad song. It is very muted and mellow, very sullen and moody, and very, very good. However, at 9:29 long, it does tend to wear itself a little thin, gaining a less subdued life only when Craig B's haunting voice and keys slide above the repetitive guitars and drums. What the track lacks in change and transition, it makes up for in atmosphere, but that could be said of any track like this. Off to a rough, but promising, start.

The middle track, "Delial," is where the EP really hits its stride, as it's obvious almost from the get-go that this is what you should expect from an Isis/Aereogramme jam session. Both groups are very into low, growling bass and haunting, atmospheric guitars, but take completely different routes when crafting their sounds. "Delial" shows that the two can live in harmony, as the heftier riffs of Isis interplay with the higher dabbles of Aereogramme. The chanted vocals would not feel out of place in either group's catalogue, making this the perfect meeting of the minds. Naturally, it runs a bit short and could have been about two minutes longer. It's a small problem, but the song is too good to truly take the bands to task for making it this way. After all, they did only have one day to write this.

This experimental EP closes off with the droning, laborious "Stolen," a track which sees the project being overtaken by Aereogramme's state of mind. They've always written long, lush, minimalist closers. Isis probably had no problem handing the reins off to them for this one. However, as seems to be a problem on this, time is a factor. It could be much shorter than it is without really losing anything.

In the end, this edition of In the Fishtank really does live up to its name as it becomes clearly obvious just how much these two bands do share in common. Their low end production is almost exactly the same. The drummers could very easily change bands and neither would be worse for wear, as they seem to share the same mindset both on this record and on their bands' records. The guitars for Aereogramme may not be as hefty, but it's hard not to see the comparisons once you've heard them integrate into one another. In the end, though, it's hard to reconcile the idea that a dash of electronics and a completely different vocal style can make these bands so incongruous to one another. If you've only heard one of the bands and not the other, check out the one you haven't. You will be shocked to see how very dissimilar their records are. I don't know if every In the Fishtank brings about this kind of revelation, but I would sure like to find out.

--Ben Rice

Author

sir mix-a-lot
Last updated: 09/29/2009 08:54PM

Comments

Zach Roth
10/13/2006
11:13AM
Age: 23
Location
Fishers, Indiana
Hm. I like the concept of this series, but neither of these two bands. Maybe I'll check out another edition.

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Inevitable
10/13/2006
12:30PM
Location
Sheffield
A three?? Hmmnn..I thought this was bloody great myself..

babarm87
10/13/2006
03:02PM
Location
Los Angeles
3.8 from me

postrockpaperscissors

Amazingthemike
10/13/2006
06:56PM
Location
Cleveland, OH
Ben Rice is wrong! :)

Scene Point Blank / Escapist Records

sir mix-a-lot
10/13/2006
06:58PM
Location
Sacramento, CA
pfft, whatever. the songs take too long sometimes and the last one deserves a 2.5 at best. plus i always overrate things, so i figured i'd underrate one because no one would see it coming with these two bands being involved, especially considering my devout love of aereogramme.

I'm not here to make things better; only to observe and pass judgement.

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It's like talking into a mirror!
lpshinobi
10/13/2006
07:12PM
Age: 23
Location
VT
It's tough to review an album with only 3 songs, as epic as they are. I'd give it a 3.5

My Top Songs of '09
The Appleseed Cast//as the little things go
Caspian//sycamore
Sunwrae//Chinook Winds
Dredg//down to the seller
If These Trees Could Talk//the sun is in the north
From Monument to Masses//an ounce of prevention
Straylight Run//i'm through with the past


LpShinobi's Post-Rock and Shoegazing Recommendation, via YouTube

Lpshinobi's Post-Rock Band, New Song Posted

Craig Tamble
10/16/2006
11:10AM
Location
Santa Cruz, CA
I really liked this CD. There are better In the Fishtanks out there, but I was hoping the EP would be longer. And whenever you want a CD to go on, that's a good sign that it's pretty good. I'd like this to have been a proper full length, or even one song longer, but it just wasn't meant to be.

Travel By Train

fictional
10/16/2006
12:44PM
Age: 31
Location
Bayside,NY
its an above average album