i N S U L A T E D

sets apart from the pack

It's hard to get noticed in a multigenre, image-conscious, rapped up, "Tubthumping"/"Butta Love" world.

With its debut Frozen Hound Recordings album, "Fence" (released Sept. 16 and distributed nationally through Navarre), the Los Angeles-based ambient-influenced pop trio Insulated is taking matters into its own hands. They have so much faith in "Fence," they're willing to man the label's phones, making cold calls to the media to drum up support.

"People say it's one-in-a-million, right?" singer-bassist Gabriel Careful said recently. "You move to L.A., you want to get into a band, you want to go national. Even if that happens, you have to go into the studio with some producer who's going to make you sound like what the major label wants you to sound. Then it's a one-in-a-million shot that you're going to be happy and everything works out.

"If you do it this way, with an indie label, it's a matter of perseverance. We're pretty much in control of our sound and we're open to ideas from our label. It pretty much works because we all love it. We're hungry, you know, we're pretty hungry."

"Fence" offers a steady diet of ambitious, edgy pop hooks, from "Find Your Sugar" (the first single) to "Bound to Be." It's not ground breaking (what is anymore?), but it has enough fetching detail to warrant attention.

"We're aiming for longevity. That's my thing," drummer Ty Dennis said. "We want to be around for a while. There's something like 20,000 to 30,000 releases a year, from what I hear, and I'm realistic enough to know it's tough with those odds, but we really believe in the record."

Careful said he, Dennis and guitarist Val Gaina, who produced "Fence," already have won half the battle.

"From an artistic view, I think it's already doing well, from the fact that we have it out," he said. "From a business point of view, if we were to go on a major label, they'd charge us like a $80,000 recording budget and also pay the engineer and producer. On an indie label, if we sell like 20,000 records, we're going to break even. We're going to have enough to make another one. We won't always have this overhead that the label has to recoup. That's what is ideal about this."

BWF (before we forget): Get isolated with Insulated on the Web @ www.insulated.com. ... Frozen Hound Recordings, 5634 Camellia Ave., North Hollywood, CA 91601; 888-GO-HOUND (464-6863); e-mail: frozenhound@earthlink.net.

INSULATED

Cultural Phenomena

Edgy, Heavy, iNSULATED

The L.A.  based trio named iNSULATED have just released their first

nationally distributed album called FENCE; and when you slide it into

your CD player, the first question that will pop into your head is,

"Are these guys just another Red Hot Chili Peppers clone?" But by the

time you listen to the album's closing track, it won't matter what

the answer is.

By including "Find Your Sugar" as their first track, the band is

inviting, begging even, to be compared the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

"Find Your Sugar" mixes multiple, competing lines of tempo that

capture the full steam ahead, barely under control mood with a heavy

metal singsong rap.  "Find Your Sugar" will likely garner then

considerable air play, at least on the college stations, on those

merits alone.

The track that has "mass market, hit single" written all over it is

"Thread." In other words, it's the track that's the most like other

rock songs you've heard over the past few years.  You know the drill;

standard instrumentation; standard form traditional rock theme.  (How

am I gonna find the time to be a big rock star and still have time

for love?) And while it's not exactly upbeat, but there's a sense of

hope in it that makes it a satisfying listen.  It's a competently

performed song, but it's not unlike stuff you haven't heard before.

Heck, the guitar work is even reminiscent of U2's early work.

Clearly iNSULATED is trying to cover their bases.  "Find Your Sugar"

to invite comparisons to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and "Thread" in

order to have a single that can be played on your generic Rock

Station du jour.

Don't hold that against them.  On Fence's other tracks, iNSULATED

proves that aren't just chasing after demographics.  iNSULATED has

become their own musical masters and carved out a sound they can call

their own.

Fence is all about being on the edge of major changes, major

decisions.  The critical moments on life and the stresses of those

decisions that can seem to make seconds stretch into hours.  The

music, at its best, feels like important decisions bearing down on

us.  Something big is going to happen and you don't know quite how

it's going to turn out or what you're going to decide and are you

going to make the right decisions or not?  The music is a reflection

of the chaos that fills us when we're on the edge of making big

decisions.

"Waiting On A Check" starts out with a mellow musical groove,

reflecting a level of self-certainty, but the music gets

progressively more complex, distorted and heavy as Gabriel Careful

sings about the challenges of stepping outside of "a single file

world." "Frozen Over" also showcases iNSULATED's ability start with a

simple line of music and pile layers of feedback and complexity on

top of it until your head is swimming.

The best tracks on Fence are the full force, frontal assaults like

"Ooga Booga Baby", "Show No Mo", and "Step Off." iNSULATED mixes

postmodern lyrics, heavy guitar and drum work, and just the right

amount of electronic mixing, with the confidence to combine multiple,

competing lines of music into the same song to create an energetic,

edgy, panoramic sound.

Fence is distributed through Navarre.  iNSULATED's web site is

located at http://insulated-gaina.narod.ru