Islet is a Welsh quartet whose free-spirited invention and exuberant intensity is hypnotic, exhilarating and defiantly unique.
Their fourth album Soft Fascination (Fire Records) is a wild excursion into the latest incarnation of this ever-changing Islet. They began in Cardiff when Emma Daman and brothers Mark and John ‘JT’ Thomas resolved to form a band with one rule: that anything was possible. Soon joined by Alex Williams the band quickly became known for their instrument switching live shows full of joyful abandon and unleashed energy. They released two albums and a handful of EPs, melding psych rock with ethereal atmospherics and jagged post punk.
In 2019 Islet signed to Fire Records, releasing their third full length album Eyelet in 2020, and their fourth Soft Fascination in 2023. This Islet is more defined, more direct; 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. Soft Fascination is an assurgent album infused with hope, grit and beauty.
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 the romance of time, an ecstatic experience through music.
