ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: ISLE with “Luna”
A lot of greatness has come out of Scotland – men wearing kilts, beautiful scenery, the Edinburgh Fringe, and Irn-Bru are just some of the wonderful inventions to come out of this small but noble country. After all, their national animal is the unicorn. Fortunately, you can now add another ‘great Scottish thing’ to the ‘great Scottish things’ list. Their name is ISLE, a producer/drummer duo from the Scottish Border, and pardon our French, but their track Luna is the shit. Seriously, you better hold on to something sturdy because you are about to board a high-powered locomotive ride to tune-town.
Luna mixes the stylings of Alt-J and Flume with the grizzly edge that can only come out of originating from the same place as Sean Connery. ISLE’s sound is everything you could want out of alt-pop – emotional, interesting, and most importantly, very easy to dance to, thanks to its African Safari undertones. Working on a hook that sounds remarkably like a thumb piano, Luna is made of magical muted synth sounds and robust percussion. The drums have the same beefiness as Toto’s Africa, which may explain the safari connotations.
The track creates anticipation and a certain tenseness as it alternates between explosive energy and constrained, mellow breakdowns, the changes accented by a versatile vocal performance. Instead of dominating the track, the vocals are interwoven and accompanied by some soft wolf howling (or owl hooting depending on your perspective).
As for the meaning of the song, the band say it’s all about, “finding your way and following a path. It’s about listening to that internal compass we all have and making sense of what it’s telling you.”
Reminiscent of the epic landscapes of Scotland, Luna moves with purpose, ferocity, and grace, making it an altogether beautiful track. It comes as the third release off of ISLE’s latest EP ‘Grey’, so if ya dig, there is certainly more where that came from. Thank you Scotland, this is certainly a great musical gift (maybe a close second to The Proclaimers 500 Miles, but whatever).
