Siren Spine Sysex, Proc Fiskal's second album sees a reorientation of the source elements of his music. While Insula hung around samples of the ramblings of his friends and sounds of his hometown, SSS is laden with an inner voice of sampled Gaelic, Irish and English Folk Music, contorted and imbued into the futurist body of modern pop; the ghostly anima image of the female folk voice, the lamenting wheeze of the accordion rub against the rush of icey 808s and angles of Grime.
Proc Fiskal aka Joe Power’s family history is in Folk Music, his paternal grandfather Archie Fisher was active in the Scottish Folk revival of the 60s, his grandfather Al Fraser a Bagpipe player & his great aunt, the singer in iconic children's Folk group 'The Singing Kettle'. It's this cultural baggage, the ’Caledonian antisyzygy’ of the constructed, earnest folk tradition he was raised under, beside the modernist dance music he makes that brings a personal element to the album. The music of Siren Spine Sysex examines dance music as folk music, rerouting them comparatively.
His productions were also inspired by the music of The Cocteau Twins, The Roches and Kate Bush, the prominent chopped and screwed Gaelic vocals, like Elizabeth Fraser cut into a UK Garage Lilt - their wordless emoting echoing into joyous twisted pop songs like '8 megapixel phone' and 'Leith Tornn Canal'."
Even though it's fast and detailed, Siren Spine Sysex feels relaxed and pastoral at times. The sino-grime present on Insula are here alongside more folk oriented elements, but the edits and drums are more sensual, swelling and reactive to the music. The album's texture is also influenced by the FM synthesis of computer games and wacky soundtracks. Siren Spine Sysex feels warm, inviting and sunny, exciting thoroughly modern album as well as a manic dissection of personal and cultural baggage.
