Isolée Western Store

[Playhouse; 2006]

Rating: 3.5/5

Styles: minimal techno, microhouse
Others: Boards of Canada, Luciano, Swayzak


[Western Store is Isolée's third album improper, a collection of early twelve inches and EP releases from before Rajko Muller's work garnered much attention. The album acts as a precursor to the microhouse style of production Muller would come to perfect through Rest and We Are Monster.]

Tracks 1-2: Take the clothes from the laundry basket and the hamper. Put them in the washing machine on Ultra Clean setting. Add detergent and fabric softener. The morning mood shifts from a drag to a disco with the layer of a drum truck. Put the towels in with the undergarments. Try to rediscover the initial drum track below the added layers.

Tracks 3-4: Vacuum the foyer, living room, and dining room. My limbs work in jerky motions, but also flex with fluidity as the beat pulsates. Spastic movements. Avoid cords, wires, and shams from lamps, computer, and couches, respectively. Go over the floor area where the dog sleeps more than once. Try not to dance.

Track 5-6: Coincidentally, while buffing the stains off the faucet fixtures, I hear the dripping of faucet water in an empty room, where the impact on a tile echoes and sends squeaking rodents whizzing across the perimeter of the room. Scrub the dried toothpaste off the brim of the sink.

Track 7-9: Clean the stovetop with a Brillo pad. Throw out the dirty aluminum burner guards. There seems to be a frog with bronchitis outside my bay window, a pin prick put through its gullet. Use a damp cloth after the steel wool. Dry with a dishtowel.

Track 10-11: Wipe the crumbs leftover from supper off the kitchen table with a wet rag. Sweep the crumbs into a neat pile at the edge of the table. Wiping motion should start at the furthest point from the body so as to not get your shirt wet bending over the table. A metallic voice over an intercom becomes audible””a speaker attached to the ceiling corner of a room in a ward ordering me to act skittish. Shake out the rag in the sink, wash the crumbs down the drain, and place the rag in the hamper.

Track 12: Beat the welcome mat over the railing of the back deck. Beat it with a broom handle. Make sure you aren't going against the wind””the dust will blow back on the deck. The sound is tribal in its rhythm, winds, and chant-like singing. If the blow back occurs, spin the broom right-side up and sweep off the deck.

1. Bleu
2. Initiate II
3. Rockers
4. Monitor
5. Surfers
6. Simone Rides
7. King Off
8. Cite Grande Terre
9. Poisson Mort
10. I Owe You (Remix)
11. Lost
12. Beau Mot Plage (Freeform Reform Pt. 1 & 2)

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