Isis Signum - Retrofuturo

Who ever thought electroclash would see a revival in 2012? Acts like Fischerspooner and Peaches might be amusing but faint memories from years gone by - yet the aesthetic and approach of the genre makes a comeback in evolved form with the latest Isis Signum release, 'Retrofuturo'.

What we have here is a collection of classy fashionista, minimalistic crunchy electro with a slight melancholy tinge and varied spoken vocals from a range of sultry, sassy seductresses. The production is smooth and the aesthetic very "supermodel chic", true to the artist's electroclash roots. There are rare flashes of trance-smart arpeggios, but mostly here are futuristic synths mixed with minimalist guitar and often funky electro basslines are to be found throughout as well.

The style intelligently references everything from Fischerspooner to Daft Punk, blending a queer New York club vibe with an undercurrent of 80's redux. The industrial flavour is only very lightly found in the handling of some of the distorted drum patterns, as well as occasionally the lyrical themes - but that's about it.

Given such a variety of female vocalists on this album, it's surprising that main man Helder Camberos is able to keep it all together and flowing smoothly. The delivery from his collection of "Isis" sirens is more or less in a similar vein, minimising the disjointedness that a variety of vocalists might engender. Their sexily-spoken vocal phrases reference everything from sex to technology, like a randy bunch of seducing, sex-mad fembots from the future.

The song structure is quite bare, and at times often repetitive. This emphasises the minimalist tone throughout and my impression is that the album as a whole is more suited to background listening while working or playing as a backdrop to a house party. It actually feels like it was written with the catwalk in mind. Brief moments of inspiration made me sit up and pay attention, but it was difficult to remain entirely interested the whole way throughout, despite clearly achieving what it sets out to do in terms of style and delivery.

The collection of remixes at the end of the album play around with the source material a little bit, but remain fairly faithful to the formula that Camberos lays down in the prior tracks, except for a notable EBM-bassline-driven take on the opening song of the album (which, true to oldskool EBM, doesn't vary up much throughout the track) as well as a bitcrushed, video-game-tinged remix of the same song by Hyboid, which I really enjoyed and is probably my favourite of the remixes.

Highlights include "Elecromagnetica feat Dirty Princess", "Recycled Part III feat Jennifer Parkin" and the Hyboid remix of "The Future Is Not Digital". Sep 05 2012