Plans Drawn in Pencil
Label: Morr Music
Length: LP
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: Plans Drawn in Pencil
Midway through Plans Drawn in Pencil, London duo Isan drop ‘Amber Button,â?� and it’s a delectable morsel of crossed concurrence: multiple strands of uranium-enriched video-game keys rising and falling over and over and into one another, evolving into a grooving, static-peppered serpent that slithers out of range before you’ve had your fill. While ‘Amber Buttonâ?� is Pencil‘s zenith in addition to being its center, there’s no lack of electronic-pop, New Wave astral-planing here, if that’s what you’re after: ‘Ship,â?� a comatose cable-car trip of Air-ian proportions, is not without its heavy-lidded charms, certainly. What remains is contemplative and cloud-skimming, pretty yet insulting in its been-there-done-that insularity. The next time someone takes offense at your complaints about the sorry, spinning-wheels state of modern electronic music, ‘Sticklandâ?� or ‘Working in Dustâ?� are all the backup you need to drive your point home.
This article appears in Jun 21-27, 2006.