Islet: International Showcase Fund (SXSW 2024)
SXSW
Islet are a quartet from Wales whose free-spirited invention and exuberant intensity is hypnotic and defiantly unique. ‘Soft Fascination’ (Fire Records) is a wild excursion into the latest incarnation of this ever-changing Islet; an assurgent album infused with hope and beauty. This Islet defined, direct. On this their fourth album for the first time each band member is assigned one instrument. Emma’s’ vocals shapeshift from airy to unleashed against a synth-driven sound with unexpected shifts of rhythm.
Self-produced and with the instrumentals recorded live with few overdubs the effect is in your face and immediate; veering from high energy beats intensity of side one to its less orthodox but no less infectious flipside, traversing hailstorms, hedgerows, broken promises and poisoned prayers; constantly breathing real life all in. Islet is all about being subsumed in sound, with a fierce urge to challenge, to embrace, communicate, excite and, ultimately, set their audience free. They are following their own course, awash with synthesisers with a rhythmic pulse creating a delicate balance between repetition, volume and time, an ecstatic experience through music.