The Isness is the second album from Amorphous Androgynous, better known in the States as The Future Sound of London, and essentially the same duo. From a genre perspective, no way is this a neo psych album. Psychedelic purists would go running out of the room if coming in with that perspective. No, it's one of the many variations of Electronica with a distinctly psychedelic undercurrent (not uncommon within the club circuit of the era). RYM says this breed is "Downtempo". OK, let's go with that. And their definition of said music is: "A type of relaxed, low intensity Electronic music... ...Often instrumental, it features slower tempos than House or Techno and tends to be more groove-driven than Ambient." Sounds about right. There are vocals of the indie variety that bog it down further, but mostly it is instrumental. The psychedelic elements are achieved utilizing some older analog keyboards - or at least the sound of such, even if synthesized. There's also some mild fuzz guitar here and there.
I bought this album when it came out. The US version on Hypnotic is labeled The Future Sound of London which I had some familiarity with at the time. The idea of their brand of Electronica and psychedelia was appealing to me back then. In fact, my initial rating was 4 stars. I have it documented that it had already dropped to a 3.5 only two short years later (via another blog I once contributed to). 15 years on from that, I hear it again - and it drops once more - this time right out of the collection. Why is that? I don't know for certain, but the album lacks the type of depth that one looks for on repeated listens. The Isness is like those Chinese knockoffs one finds for example on Canal Street in Manhattan - they look great on the surface, and are believably the real thing. Until it breaks on the 3rd and 4th use. So - good for awhile, but not permanent. Bye.
CD: 2002 Hypnotic (USA)
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