Isis (the female band)

[Flower]

^^^Thanks Jtm ..

Poor management was also a factor as to why Goldie & the Gingerbreads didn't get the "fame" and recognition that they deserved ...

 

[Jtm]

THE ISIS CATALOGUE, PART II

In 1975 Isis went to the Big Easy to record their second album (Ain't No Backin' Up Now) with producer Allan Toussaint who wrote the Labelle-ish title track (a duet between MacDonald and Bass), Icy Winds (Bass as the captain of the ropey "ship of love"), the harmony-voiced Old Stories and the one ballad Gold. "Gold was the colour of the sun going down (and cold was the night) / Bold was the colour of the fun going down" mourns a deserted MacDonald. However, in Eat The Root she gets itchy feet herself, away from the madness of "city living". Bass says "goodbye" to her Lost Romeo inbetween two floorfillers; Bobbi & Maria (a ******* couple fighting for acceptance) and Come One Come All (a call to "get on the train of thought and concentration"). Like the debut album, Backin' Up ends with a singalong; Sunshine Tree (9).

In part 3; a hard act to follow.

 

[Flower]

^^^ Thanks Jtm ...

 

[Drifter]

Very interesting thread! I had heard of Isis before but didn't know much about them. Well, now I do! I enjoy catching up on things I might have missed the first time around.

 

[snakes&ladders]

Cool band

 

[Jtm]

THE ISIS CATALOGUE; PART III
Ain't No Backin' Up Now came in a drawn sleeve portraying the band in the weirdest of shapes and disguises (for example, Mata as her namesake statue). It could have been the breakthrough for the band, but instead they were dropped by Buddah before splitting up late 1975/early 1976. MacDonald and Margo Lewis (keys) formed a new Isis and signed to United Artists; in they 1977-released the more commercial-sounding Breaking Through with additional songs by Faith Fusillo (guitar) and Lynx Sheffield (sax). The sleeve-design with the chick breaking out of the egg (front) and the abandoned studio (back) says it all. No Servant Saviour or April Fool to be found here, while the second half sounds like a collection of B-sides; instead of a singalong (Get Crazy) the album closes with a slowdown (Looking For A Space). The 2007-rerelease features two bonustracks; Wonderful and a cover-version of Billy Joel's New York State Of Mind. It is not known whether they were recorded in 2001 (when Isis broke a 21-year hiatus) only that these tracks stand out well. Chances of a logical follow-up to the first two albums are very unlikely since MacDonald's passing in 2007. All that's left to do is surmising what whe have missed out on and what could have been if Isis were given more time.

 

[Flower]

 

[Jtm]

The surmising begins/continues. Had Isis stayed together, would they've gone the same way as the other groups they were compared with ?

 

[Jtm]

After leaving Isis, Mata, Bianco, Fineberg and Seeling became members of another all-female band; Latin Fever. I heard two tracks on Youtube from their Larry Harlow-produced album and it was a definite reminder that the 'original' Isis would've followed Backin' Up with a latin-disco album.