[Vizual Records]

Although he’s spent a lot of time in California over the years, it is Chicago that rings through Joshua Michael’s music most clearly. Born in the home of house music but raised in San Jose, Iz (as he later become known) forged solid friendships with key Chicago luminaries at a young age; indeed, his very first release was on the essential Prescription imprint, with more closely following on Guidance and Classic. Nearly fifteen years and several dozen EPs since his first release he has finally committed his musical vision to long form on his own Vizual label with the result showing just why he has remained in demand for so long. Though history has shown Iz to be more than comfortable with the medium of 12″ and EP releases he tackles the album format with ease; because for what is essentially a collection of dance floor tracks, It Iz What It Iz flows with all the peaks and valleys of an artist album.

Elements of Joshua’s early inspirations can be found via tinges of reggae in the title track, with a bass melody closely resembling Bob Marley’s “Could You Be Loved” fitting snugly in the groove of the slowly arpeggiating, clean synth lines. Long time partner Diz provides the rich, honeyed vocal for the track, adding to the already tender vibe. Other instances of Joshua’s early influences can be found throughout the album too. He taps into downbeat, dub and ragga on the only track that feels out of place on the album, the downbeat “We Control” featuring MC and long time friend and Jamalski, whose braggadocios toast feels worlds away from the rest of the mainly house based material. “The Bells” is the only other downbeat moment, but unlike “We Control,” it feels like an appropriately nuanced interlude, bright and brassy synths languidly stretching out over a lazy bass line and a mid tempo breakbeat.

The album is foremost focused on house with elements of techno. It’s not all new content, with the title track, “Alpha & Omega” and two other cuts all appearing elsewhere before in various guises. The high wire strings on “Earthrise (Moon Mix),” evoke the early days of Detroit techno but in more of a relaxed, unhurried fashion. The track initially turned up on his Vizual Rydims #2 EP, but I find the subtle, ethereal nature of the Moon Mix to be better suited to the album format. The dub house groover “Deep Space Pressure,” also originally from the same EP, gets three minutes trimmed off for the album, though even with the shorter edit is still an outstanding, kinetic track. Of the new tracks there are also many highlights, with “Ewall” hitting the late night vibe perfectly with a dreamy haze of shimmering synths, cascading marimbas and deeply wrought bass.

There is a good balance struck between the deeper house cuts and more techno oriented, with equilibrium also between heavier hitting dance floor cuts and more introspective, cranial seducers. “Sea of Vapours” and “Flower Sparks” both fall under the dance floor banner, with the former meting out a steady pulse of analog synths, sounding like a more purposeful, laconic version of Spirit Catcher’s “Voo Doo Knight,” while the latter ticks all the right boxes for its use of evolving, filtered chords, hypnotic groove and punchy but simplistic percussion. Deeper moments come courtesy of the Chez Damier featured vocal on “Sentimental Love,” and the Jungle Brothers sampling closer “What Planet?”, both tracks shining examples of the masterful strokes with which Iz paints his house productions.

A constant theme on the album is the use of arpeggio rhythms and it’s something Joshua knows how to do well, using it several times in a controlled, understated way that never approaches over indulgence. It is something that helps tie the album together, a familiar presence throughout the twelve tracks that gives shape to the work as a whole. Unlike the current strains of modern day house, whose producers search to tap in to the spirit of Chicago and Detroit by studying the form and padding their tracks with digital dust for an authentic feel, Joshua heads in the other direction by utilizing clean, polished sounds. But through the burnished gleam of his productions, his musical origins shine through regardless. With It Iz What It Iz, Joshua collates the ideas and feelings that have helped him remain an important part of house music for so long while giving listeners plenty of reasons to continue to follow his account of the genre.

Back in 2000 at the apogee of Classic Records and Music For Freaks, DJs and producers such as DJ Sneak, Justin Harris and of course Derick Carter were de rigour. The entire Chi-Town bent on boompty bass lines and a serious penchant for fun sounds, be it the unfortunately too short lived Charleston house sound exemplified by Greens Keepers’ “What’s Your Man Got To Do With Gan” (and check the Igloo Records and G-Swing imprints) to bells, whistles, meows and barks blew up dance floors and headphones. On the flip side there were the deeper house sounds of Chicago with Iz & Diz’s enduring “Mouth” on Classic and “If You Love It, Dub It” on Silver Network. That’s probably how you know Iz; these days he’s all about his new imprint Vizual Records, using it as a vehicle to release music across the gamut of electronic music from Jamaican dub to Detroit techno. As with many contemporary solo artist led imprints, all the initial releases have been by Iz himself, but they’ve not lacked diversity. After an honorary bow to boompty on the first Vizual Rydims release, he decided to take a slightly deeper, Detroit lean while attempting to retain a hint of breeze from the windy city.

Aptly opening with “Deep Space Pressure,” rolling along a taut bass line which opens up to reveal haunted sweeping echoed pads around which melodic synths evocative of dub-techno in the vein Basic Channel’s Quadrant (especially 1990 classic “Infinition”) fill the space. Strangely enough the track wouldn’t be completely out of place on Deadbeat mix, but yet fails to have the same drive of either classics or newer releases in the genre. “Galaxy Girl” attempts, and almost succeeds, to connect the dots between Chicago and Detroit with a subdued bottom-end and a DJ Sneak-esque vocal sample twinned with chattering hats and echoes synths populating the periphery of aural landscape. Yet unfortunately it falls short of great and landing in the realm of average. “Orbital Dimensions” is the housiest number on the EP, shuffling along in an accomplished, though lackluster Chicago by numbers manner throughout its eight minutes. It’s only with “Earthrise” that Joshua Iz reveals a glimmer of the production skills he’s built his career on. A touch of viscerally moving Detroit techno with opposing synths appearing to dissolve and reappear in the mix, just to be complemented by immersive emotive keys telling the story of the ghost in the machine. Unfortunately not as solid a release as one would hope from Iz, but if the trajectory Vizual Records is on thus far is anything to go by, the following releases may well surprise detractors. Myself included.

[Vizual Records]

There is a long tradition in aesthetics presupposing that art should aspire to resemble nature. Art’s artifice, all the craft and design, should disappear from view, leaving behind only a surface on which elements seem to move with natural necessity. The enjoyment of art stems in part from experiencing something that seems almost like nature, while all along still knowing somehow that it’s artificial, shaped by the hands of man. The chance of enjoying the four tracks offered up by Joshua Iz for his second release on his own Vizual Records thus seems summed up by the title. “Flower Sparks” reflects how these numbers seem to unfold organically, yet also use a distinctly synthetic sound palette that reminds you of the electrical energy whirring through machines that makes it possible. What’s more, I wouldn’t be surprised if “Flower Sparks” was the name of the VST plug-in Joshua used to generate the synth lines that take center stage throughout — buzzing with electric warmth, they wind through twisting melodies in fluid undulation.

This synth style is in full effect on “Rydim Culture” lending the track a breezy, effervescent air, snaking over a series of brisk, bright synth stabs. Like its three kin, “Rydim Culture” has a glitzy, uptempo house vibe well-suited for Friday night at a high-rise bar in midtown, white leather sofas, high heels, and an expansive terrace view of city lights glowing through the rain. It’s futurist-escapist, soundtracking a pleasure-centric throwdown hidden far away from the stress, anxieties and lurking paranoias of the urban jungle. The EP’s titular opener derives its enthralling, bouncy momentum from the gloriously wild throbs of an acid-y synth riff. Even though all the filters and distortions on the synth have a distinctly digital sheen to them, their rich tonal variety would support the idea that digital is at times just as capable of sounding alive as analog is.

While Joshua’s tunes are in the pocket, the result of more than ten years in the house music game, a number of vocal sentiments here appear a bit tacked on. “Rydim Culture” includes a rasta shouting the title over a house groove that has ostensibly little to do with “rydim,” while “Alpha & Omega” touts a diva asserting “I am the alpha of kinky hair… and the omega of your dreams… gaze upon me.” Such new age mythologizing seems more appropriate for some psychedelic disco than chic house. That’s to say, while Joshua’s production style tastes like champagne, his vocal samples smell like weed. Not a contradiction, perhaps; what’s deep house after all but regular house just more stoned?