Isomer Transition - Shadowlands EP - Future Days 01

The very first shot of this new UK label is a real success. Signed by a famous producer who wishes to remain enigmatic, “Shadowlands” introduces three cuts of a dark, tense and heavy techno with German sound influences. On A side, “Dark Star” delivers a strong 4/4 construction combining efficient percussions and hypnotic minimal strings. More atmospheric, “Heavy Water” offers a solid reverb work under a grumbling beat. At last, “Red Giant” concludes the 12” on a deeper note, alternating noisy tonalities, heading pulses and choked melodies. Half way between Monolake, Headroom and regretted Christian Morgenstern productions.

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Isomer Transition: Shadowland
Future Days

Isomer Transition’s 12-inch Shadowland revisits atmospheric techno ground formerly tilled by the esteemed likes of Surgeon and Chain Reaction with the latter’s cavernous echo and narcoticized ambiance downplayed ever-so-slightly. Adopting a new guise for techno output, RJ Valeo stokes a pumping, precision-tooled lather in three deep warehouse tracks. Blurry chords surge over a broiling mass of percussion intricacy and relentless machine pulses in the A-side’s “Dark Star” while a more rollicking feel dominates the flip’s “Heavy Water.” Waves of rattlesnake textures and eel-like chords build over its infectious tech-house groove before “Red Giant” presents an even more aquatic haze, its concluding keyboard ripples an almost overt nod to the classic Basic Channel-Chain Reaction style. Imagine a conflation of Surgeon, Substance, Scion, and Monolake and you’ll have a pretty good idea of Shadowland’s dub-techno sound. Future days indeed.

June 2006

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shocking debut here, already hammered by the likes of Berlin’s Hardwax crew and touted by a ruck of producers who’ve been running this on white label as quite possibly the Techno discovery of the year. But, of course, there’s always more to these debut’s then meets the eye because Isomer Transition is actually the work of a well known producer who wishes to remain anonymous..at least for the moment. All that you need to know is that “Shadowlands” is just one of the most perversely heavy, dub-infused techno twelves we’ve heard in an age, dense with a weighty low-end undercarriage and incredibly spacious layers of percussion that seem to come from a producer able enough to unearth the meeting point between the work of Surgeon, Basic Channel and Monolake and do so without ever sounding overly familiar. A Sick twelve…

RJ Valeo - September

The best way to describe this album is… cold. Melodies are based around drones and long hissing tones that just generally sound very absent. They sound nice. Real nice, in fact. RJ is a fantastic producer. He sounds like he really knows how to get the sound he wants out of his equipment. Everything is EQ’ed beautifully. That may be part of the problem I had with certain parts of the album. Sometimes I feel like its style over substance. Key word here is sometimes. Certain parts of the LP are absolutely stunning. When things come together for RJ, they really come together quite nicely.

His sound does not sound contrived or stolen at all. This is far from generic IDM but I can hear the influence in the music. I can also hear hip hop, house and many other forms of electronic music. Type does a good job choosing artists who make music that is influenced by the artists they like, not a direct rip-off or mashing of the sounds of said influences. The album is good, and I really look forward to hearing RJ improve on this but sometimes I really don’t mesh with the songs at all though. That said, when RJ is good, he’s really fucking good.

-Laurel Near
March 4, 2004

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Smallfish Review - RJ Valeo - September

Date: November 23, 2003

I’ve been waiting for this for a while! The hotly tipped new label Type delivers it’s first release and it’s an absolute smasher.

RJ Valeo’s debut on Hobby Industries was a superb piece of work and this betters it in my opinon. A full eight track album of some of the most delectibly atmospheric electronica around.

Taking cues from labels such as Scap and artists such as Dub Tractor, this album has some lush, icy cold sounding textures and chords coupled with subtle, downbeat rhythmic structures that sit happily in a semi glitch kind of style.

Conversely, there are a couple of more upbeat tracks with quality beats and a more lively sound to the melodies which complements the other haunting works perfectly.

An outstanding first release for Type and a brilliant piece of work from RJ Valeo.

Let’s hope they can keep it up. Respect.

RJ Valeo : September

The first album from New York resident RJ Valeo which brings together beautiful, abstract, cinematic washes and intricate, delicate rhythms for a genre tipping experience. A must for fans of crystaline melodic-electronic experimentations.

RJ Valeo will be a name familiar to few on the electronic scene, but this is all about to change. After a split release with Acoustic on Thomas ‘Opiate’ Knak’s respected Hobby Industries imprint in 2002, RJ began crafting a mini album for Type which took the meticulous rhythmic explorations heard on his Hobby Industries release to vast and unexplored lands.With the current explosion in electronic music, it is often difficult to find music which stands out from the crowd. With ‘September’, Mr. Valeo chooses to stand back from the crowd, observe it, then fly overhead!Each track, while maintaining continuity, caresses the listener into travelling fresh and exotic lands. Whether it is hip hop, sleazy electro or a gritty digital landscape, the delicate balance of emotion, logic and machine is always maintained.We are all aware of the world’s obsession with media and entertainment, and how one aspect of our culture can feed upon another seemingly unassociated part. The influence of the cinema on music has never been disputed, but RJ wears this influence clearly on his sleeve and these six tracks are most adeptly defined as pure cinematic indulgence.From the detuned urban washes of ‘Jarus’ and the sci-fi hip hop crunch of ‘Cypher’ to the dark night-club flicker of ‘Saturday Afternoon’, that widescreen venue is always just our eyelids away.The album finally draws to a close with the spiritual and melancholic ‘Black Ice’. A fitting end to this thoughtful and meditational record, an album which does not stifle, but aids and encourages creative thought.While listening it is hard not to visualise exactly what this music would look like with the accompaniment of a cathode ray pulse, and that is exactly what the music is about ; putting the imagination to work and absorbing the power of sound.