The L.A. based trio named
iNSULATED have just released their first nationally distributed album called
FENCE; and when you slide it into your CD player, the first question that will pop into your head is, "Are these guys just another Red Hot Chili Peppers clone?" But by the time you listen to the album's closing track, it won't matter what the answer is.
By including
"Find Your Sugar" as their first track, the band is inviting, begging even, to be compared the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
"Find Your Sugar" mixes multiple, competing lines of tempo that capture the full steam ahead, barely under control mood with a heavy metal singsong rap.
"Find Your Sugar" will likely garner then considerable air play, at least on the college stations, on those merits alone.
The track that has "mass market, hit single" written all over it is
"Thread." In other words, it's the track that's the most like other rock songs you've heard over the past few years. You know the drill; standard instrumentation; standard form traditional rock theme. (How am I gonna find the time to be a big rock star and still have time for love?) And while it's not exactly upbeat, but there's a sense of hope in it that makes it a satisfying listen. It's a competently performed song, but it's not unlike stuff you haven't heard before. Heck, the guitar work is even reminiscent of U2's early work.
Clearly iNSULATED is trying to cover their bases.
"Find Your Sugar" to invite comparisons to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and
"Thread" in order to have a single that can be played on your generic Rock Station du jour. Don't hold that against them. On Fence's other tracks, iNSULATED proves that aren't just chasing after demographics. iNSULATED has become their own musical masters and carved out a sound they can call their own.
Fence is all about being on the edge of major changes, major decisions. The critical moments on life and the stresses of those decisions that can seem to make seconds stretch into hours. The music, at its best, feels like important decisions bearing down on us. Something big is going to happen and you don't know quite how it's going to turn out or what you're going to decide and are you going to make the right decisions or not? The music is a reflection of the chaos that fills us when we're on the edge of making big decisions.
"Waiting On A Check" starts out with a mellow musical groove, reflecting a level of self-certainty, but the music gets progressively more complex, distorted and heavy as Gabriel Careful sings about the challenges of stepping outside of "a single file world."
"Frozen Over" also showcases iNSULATED's ability start with a simple line of music and pile layers of feedback and complexity on top of it until your head is swimming.
The best tracks on Fence are the full force, frontal assaults like
"Ooga Booga Baby",
"Show No Mo", and
"Step Off." iNSULATED mixes postmodern lyrics, heavy guitar and drum work, and just the right amount of electronic mixing, with the confidence to combine multiple, competing lines of music into the same song to create an energetic, edgy, panoramic sound.
Fence is distributed through Navarre.
iNSULATED's web site is located at:
iNSULATED
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