Isolée a.k.a Rajko Müller Is Getting Bigger...

"Western Store" Compilation

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For anyone who didn’t know or didn’t realise: Isolée is a French word and means something like “having little contact with other people”, “on its own” or just simply “isolated”. Yet one should not come to any wrong conclusions in relation to Rajko Müller or his private life. The name refers purely to the music of the artist who originates from Frankfurt and now lives in Hamburg having spent some time in Algeria. “On its own” is the correct terminus technicus. Well, Isolée simply sounds like... Isolée.He last demonstrated this impressively on his album We Are Monster. The reference engine of “Superproducer Rajko Müller” (Sebastian Fasthuber, Spex) works much slower and in a far more abstract manner than that of most of his peers.

The fact that Rajko Müller is one of two people on this planet whose head doesn’t make trucker caps look out of place makes the whole thing even more likeable. Perhaps Isolée had breakfast on the same disco planet as Morgan Geist or Daniel Wang, the action he has taken as a result of this is completely different. Though synthie-pop, EBM and hip hop may well count as influences, they are not really tangible and impossible to pinpoint in his music. The four-minute track Cité Grande Terre (Play 022) doesn’t sound like anything you’ve ever heard before. Nonetheless you instantly take a liking for it. So Isolée proverbially plays in a league of his own. And he has always done so Yet don’t get me wrong, »Western Store« is anything but a random patchwork. Held together by ice crystals sparkling in the sunlight such as »Simone Rides« or the spellbinding futuristic music of »King Off« (both on Play 018), »Western Store« comes across like the missing link in the chain of albums between »Rest« and »We Are Monster«.

So it makes no difference whether the year they were created was 1997 or 2003. With his openness and flexibility, Isolée evades any distinct identification with regard to his music, making him a nightmare and blessing for the music journalists worldwide. A nightmare, because the pigeonholes jam whenever Isolée’s tracks are played. A blessing is their effect: »Western Store« is one of the few exhibits of our time that stimulates dancefloors and our minds alike, without playing one off against the other.

Description By The Label - Playhouse