Some records politely request your focus and unfold at a respectful distance. AN does the opposite. It steps forward with total confidence, switches on the modular rig, and lets the control voltage speak for itself. There is no small talk and no easing in. From the first moments, Man As Island makes it clear that this is music built to test your attention span and reward your nerves.
Released by Local Gods out of St. Petersburg, Russia, this is not golden IDM-era nostalgia-bait and it is not a retro exercise dressed up in boutique gear. AN as an album is a living, breathing modular organism. Every patch cable is intentional. Every glitch is earned. If there are imperfections here, they are the kind that give a sculpture its fingerprints and a machine its soul.
What follows is not a parade of isolated tracks but a tightly wired system in motion. The album breathes as one piece, yet certain moments rise and demand recognition. ‘Haikei’ establishes the tone with deep cerebral IDM that unfurls its wings and sprawls under its own blueprints. The programming is intricate, the sound design is fresh, and the arrangement refuses complacency. It sets the bar high, but the record clears it again and again.
‘Saami’ is one of the undeniable pressure points. Detuned leads cut through heavy kicks and a pristine bassline keeps us anchored through the chaos. The energy is high, but it never descends into noise for its own sake. It is controlled impact. ‘Gradual Process’ pushes even further into rhythmic complexity, staggering drums against evolving melodic passages that open and close like mechanical shutters. It proves that Man As Island understands tension as architecture, as a necessary component to structural integrity.
‘Pulsar’ deserves its own spotlight for the way it toys with structure. It pivots from softness into weight and from steady pulse into slow burn without losing coherence. Then there is ‘One Armed Woman,’ which flirts with collapse through unstable timing, bizarre transitions and layered modulation, yet holds together through sheer compositional discipline. Even ‘Automation,’ stripped of drums entirely, stands tall as a study in evolving sequence work, proving that body-moving grooves can exist in melodic motion alone.
The closing stretch makes it clear that this is not a solitary vision but a curated statement. ‘Etude’ introduces a stark piano motif that becomes a canvas for reinterpretation; ‘Etude (Anderdog Remix)’ transforms that motif with breakbeat drive and added instrumentation, honoring the source while shifting the ground beneath your feet. ‘Saami (Morakh Remix)’ injects distortion and dancefloor urgency, amplifying the original’s intensity into something kinetic and immediate. Finally, ‘Gradual Process (Ambidextrous Remix)’ closes the album with unmistakable authority, layering complexity with raw human emotion and echoing the spirit of 2001’s Errorism while remaining firmly rooted in the present, committed to the vision that is AN.
This is where Local Gods deserves serious credit. The label has positioned AN not as a retro curiosity but as a statement of intent. Braindance here is alive, fresh, adaptive, new, and unapologetically intricate. The production values are sharp and the mastering gives you space to fall in love with it, over and over again.
Man As Island has accomplished something rare. He’s tapped into the restless, manic intelligence that defined early Braindance and has translated it through modern modular fluency (with some help from a few friends, of course). The result is a confident, technical, & emotionally resonant bit of superb craftsmanship. This is an album that commands attention from the first patch cable to the final fade-out. 9½ out of 10 stars. Easy.
AN by Man As Island releases 20th Feb 2026 exclusively on the Local Gods Record Label
