Browse by Artist: ISOLEE

Artist:	ISOLEE
Title:	Rest
Label:	PLAYHOUSE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PLAY 001CD

Year 2000 debut release, repressed after a period of unavailability. "At first there were six singles on Playhouse, the massive 'Beau Mot Plage' being one of them, then came Isolée's debut album called Rest way back in the year 2000. Some say it changed the face of electronic music, well, there was definitely nothing like this kind of alien-pop-music before: Isolée plays with different styles but his music cannot be described as one common style like techno or house or anything known so far. His brilliance is his variety and his lack of fear of being not danceable. Imagine Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder and Larry Heard went out on a trip to the galaxy and came back after several years bringing with them the continuation of electronic pop/dance-music: that's Isolée! The stunning debut album of one of house music's greatest innovators. The revolution of house, techno, electro, well basically every type of electronic music. Rest is one of the most important, best and succinct albums currently available, and above all, when you hear "Rest" you immediately want to know what it is, in fact, feel an urge to have to know what it is. Determining what that is, a rest. The rest of electronic music that remains if you rest, wait, put things into a state of suspense in indecisiveness, in which one must re-decide, re-determine. For those who still don't know how to think, electronic music, house and techno mean having a bass drum as the centre so to speak, as the unquestionable piece of hardware that gets the dancefloor moving. The bass drum, says the first track on his first album, is a part, an element, a word used in software languages, one of the many languages mathematical ensembles we are in the midst of tend to speak in. Distinctly reminiscent of yesterday's minimalism when analogue wasn't an opposite nor by any means a swear-word yet, but a kind of battle cry in which the bass drum and samples began to circulate. Also distinctly reminiscent of Daniel Bell and many others, Isolée dispenses the bass drum in its quasi-classical waveform of one single motion. "Rest" is what you've split up, a term subject to linguistic complexities, one which only then offers space to project things, to create music in such a way as to make tracks out of it. Classically nice, melodious, harmonious, sound-loving, varied, but of an unnerving self-assuredness of unsureness, making Isolée's music sound strange, yet nice at the same time, like a media review expressed in sounds. Like a basis to transport contents, like a vision of horror or fulfilment, because for Isolée mediums are always many different entities communicating with each other, corresponding formats, languages, melodies, rhythms, things within a massive machinery made by the most different types of machines that can never be amalgamated into one."

Artist:	ISOLEE
Title:	We Are Monster
Label:	PLAYHOUSE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PLAY 015CD

Widely hailed as 2005's greatest electronic music album. "There were rumours, there were whispers but nothing seemed to be forthcoming. People use the term 'long awaited new album' far too flippantly but in Isolée's case that term doesn't even begin to do it justice. Five years ago, after a handful of 12'' singles (including the now bona fide classic 'Beau Mot Plage'), Rajko Mueller released the Rest album which blew minds around the world. House music had been stagnant for so long but Rajko found new ways to breathe life into it and made it sound as exciting as the day it was first born in Chicago. He also did something else, he created something entirely new and fresh-sounding and made one of the few 'dance' albums that stood up to long term listening. To this day it sounds like it came from another world. In the intervening years there have been a few more singles and several acclaimed remixes along with a few whispers that the next Isolée album would see Mr. Mueller go disco. And now that day has come and We Are Monster is here. So, yes it is a bit wonky and yes it is a bit different and yes it is a bit disco. Not disco in the conventional sense but some mutant 21st century hybrid of beautiful, melodious but disjointed melodies, space noises from another galaxy, strange basstones and percolating drum patterns. It also goes far further than just disco as while that music is designed specifically for the dancefloor, We Are Monster is making a fantabulous soundtrack to my movements around the city and my spacing-out time at home too. Beautiful music from one of the greats. The wait was worth it." -- Keith McIvor/Optimo.

Artist:	ISOLEE
Title:	Western Store
Label:	PLAYHOUSE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PLAY 017CD

CD compilation of earlier 12" releases. "Perhaps Isolée had breakfast on the same disco planet as Morgan Geist or Daniel Wang, the action he has taken as a result of this is completely different. Though synthie-pop, EBM and hip hop may well count as influences, they are not really tangible and impossible to pinpoint in his music. The four-minute track 'Cité Grande Terre' (Play 022) doesn't sound like anything you've ever heard before. Nonetheless you instantly take a liking for it. So Isolée proverbially plays in a league of his own. And he has always done so right from the start. Western Store underlines this theory. Compiled by one half of Alter Ego and Sensorama, Jörn Elling Wuttke, Western Store includes a range of 12" works by Isolée. What a funny coincidence that the record comprises exactly 12 tracks. Some are from Isolée's early days, for example the beautiful New Orderesque 'Initiate II' or the hypnotic deep dub reggae disco on 'Monitor' (both on Play 014). On the other hand, works such as the maze-like and mystical 'Lost,' Rajko's last Playhouse 12" before the latest album release, or the enchanting 'Beau Mot Plage' version of Freeform Five that could also have been concocted by the hazy minds of the Idjut Boys. Yet don't get me wrong, Western Store is anything but a random patchwork. Held together by ice crystals sparkling in the sunlight such as 'Simone Rides' or the spellbinding futuristic music of 'King Off' (both on Play 018), Western Store comes across like the missing link in the chain of albums between Rest and We Are Monster. So it makes no difference whether the year they were created was 1997 or 2003. With his openness and flexibility, Isolée evades any distinct identification with regard to his music, making him a nightmare and blessing for the music journalists worldwide. A nightmare, because the pigeonholes jam whenever Isolée's tracks are played. A blessing is their effect: Western Store is one of the few exhibits of our time that stimulates dancefloors and our minds alike, without playing one off against the other."

Artist:	ISOLEE
Title:	Cite Grade Terre
Label:	PLAYHOUSE (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	PLAY 022EP

1998 release in Playhouse's "Classic" reissue form, in stock for the first time.. "For the fifth time Rajko Müller aka Isolée appears on Playhouse and if you thought this guy did marvellous tracks before, he understands to top your expectations once more, reaching a peak where Playhouse has never been before. Easily he breaks musical boundaries, adding French Chanson-like vocals to a futuristic dance-beat, using lovely melodies and deep dub influences to create his own way of pop-house." 5-track EP, including the original version of Isolée's most famous track, the anthemic "Beau Mot Plage".

Artist:	ISOLEE
Title:	Can't Sleep All Night
Label:	PLAYHOUSE (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	PLAY 077EP

"Isolée is back with a new single for Playhouse! Having worked on some remixes lately, Mister Rajko Müller now delivers new, own material. And the typical Isolée sound reveals itself to the listener immediately on this 12". Rajko makes us nod our heads right from the start -- a tremendous groove. Bassdrum and handclap action galore! Rajko's masterly use of melodies is shown here by the way of his synthesizer playing. Different parts are glued perfectly together, creating the Isolée track with the Isolée sound in the end. No question that you Can't Sleep All Night of course... "

Artist:	ISOLEE
Title:	The Western Edits Pt. 2
Label:	PLAYHOUSE (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	PLAY 125EP

New exclusive remixes by Villalobos and The Glimmers. The mix of "I Owe You" by Villalobos is 15 minutes, 10 minutes longer than on the Western Store CD. "Continuing the edit/remix opus of classic Isolée material, we have two other offerings by the magnificent Señor Villalobos and those two Belgian gentlemen The Glimmers. Villalobos injected 'I Owe You' directly into the orbit with another full on trippy and dreamy remix so typical for him. Isolée's very own 'You Are The One...' vocals sound a bit spooky first, but don't do any harm to the open air, sandy beaches, blue skies atmosphere wrapped nicely in the Alcachofa way. It's a great excursion to an Algerian beach called 'Bomo Plage'... Lovely, with a very gentle finale!"

Artist:	ISOLEE
Title:	Hermelin
Label:	PLAYHOUSE (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	PLAY 130EP

"Enter the universe of Isoleé and explore three new tunes by the master of chords! He's back on the block with this 12" entitled 'Hermelin' or 'Ermine' for all you English speaking animal lovers out there. And you will easily see that his music is as precious as the fur of an ermine. The title track, despite its uptempo beat, has a certain cautious feel to it. Especially as Isoleé adds this whimsical, kind of English folk melody that appears over and over again."

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