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Insula is the debut studio album of Edinburgh producer Joe Powers, known by his stage name as Proc Fiskal. It was released by the label Hyperdub on 8 June 2018 to favorable critical reviews.

Background
Powers said the Insula went through "three, or maybe even four, versions" that were eventually combined together into the version of the record that was released. The cover art for Insula, done by Powers himself, is a photograph of a bunch of stickers cut up by Powers and placed together on the back of a "Parking Suspended" sign. Hyperdub released Insula on 8 June 2018.

Concept and composition
Insula mixes the stylings of vintage grime music,  such as eski] clicks, with the tempos of footwork and drum 'n' bass (all the tracks are around 160 beats per minute),  a baroque music-esque method to melody, and 2010s experimental techniques. Paul Simpson labeled the album as "a (slightly) mellower Iglooghost, but with less of a preoccupation with fantasy and more grounded in daily life, motivated by boredom and unrest."

In making the tracks, Powers mostly focused on the lead melodies of the tracks "because I got bored of making tunes that relied on the bass element. Melodies were more enjoyable at that point for me to listen to and make, and I was making it for myself to listen to at that point." Some critics described the style of the album as a more accessible version of grime due to its melodic aspect. The music is driven by "choppy" and "cut-up" IDM-esque drums that perform complex and irregular rhythms, which Powers stated was a response to the lack of "urgency" of music that was popular in the clubs he went to while recording the album: "I want to keep people’s brains active. A lot of music can seem like it’s designed to just make people turn off and doss."

Powers explained in an interview, "I like to... attack people with information and allude to various things at once, to confuse people, and to fuck up your nostalgic brain with overlapping stuff." This is reflected in Insula ' s pacing, where different types of sounds and samples of past media occur at a rapid rate; as critic Andrew Ryce claimed, "Not only are the sounds flying at you from every which way, but just as [Powers] references one thing, he throws in something else totally unrelated to it." Some critics suggested the music represented the digital landscape of the time the album was released, Ryce in particular noting that the sounds "jitter in uptempo patterns that likely reflect growing up amid the hectic babble of social media."

The album includes other people's conversations Powers recorded on his phone, which gives it the "introspective" feel of "a scrapbook of false memories and eavesdropped emotions," Chal Ravens of Pitchfork analyzed. The LP's other sounds include field recordings of normal life, such as radio dial sounds, phone dial tones, and camera shutters, ambient music synths, chiptune textures,  and tongue-in-cheek uses of old video game samples.

Reception
Simpson, reviewing Insula for AllMusic, called it "one of the most inventive debut albums of 2018," reasoning that it was "densely constructed, colorful, and unpredictable," showed Fiskal's "master" skills of "creatively flipping samples," and "cover[ed a wide range of emotions." Ravens praised it as "one of the most original records to emerge from [grime]’s current burst of afterlife, possessing an outsider spirit all its own." The List writer Arusa Qureshi complimented Powers for "stay[ing] true to Hyperdub's affinity for forward-thinking production and experimentation, releasing a record that remains within the realm of grime as we know it but with added personality and melodic idiosyncrasies." Beedham honored Insula as "a veritable form disruptor and a magnetic pièce de résistance" of grime, despite being "a pun on the insularity of" the genre.

Track listing
Track lengths derived from the iTunes Store.


 * Sample credits
 * "A Like Ye" features samples from Dizzee Rascal's "I Luv U."