SOM Compilation Vol. 5 deals with a sound with quite strict parameters and shows what quality artists can do within such structures. Of course, a vinyl edition of this superb outing would have been nice but overall this is an impressive and accomplished outing that borders on the flawless.
[Release page] Solar One Music has proven itself an exemplary Electro imprint. The German label is the offspring of Nico Jagiella and Robert Witschkowski, the latter being better known the The Exaltics. SOM has pushed some of the preconceptions of Electro, maintaining the machine essence of the sound whilst allowing some musical warmth to soften the often strict equation. After the success of The Exaltics Meet… series to date, SOM return to a store near you with a double CD of some of the imprint’s favourites from home and abroad.
Astro Chicken’s Hyboid opens with some warm analogue actions before the colder 101 notes land. Arnold Steiner adds the coolant before Scape One and Sync24 drop the temperature with some clinical cuts. But then the balance comes, EOD under his CN pseudonym dishes up some textured synthesizer comfort. The quality keeps coming. The little known DVS NME offers the complex cut back sounds before Latvia’s =UHU= sends forth a weird and wonderful piece of tribal minimalism. Across the album there is electronic class. Plant43 speeds up from his usual Electronics whereas Frank Sarrio leaves behind his darker past for an almost quirky piece of militarised music, a peculiar twist which runs into Dcast Dynamics. Artists from the crème of Electro are present: Cultivated Electronics, Frustrated Funk and AC Records to name but a few. Bunker boss Guy Travers is on hand under his Schwerzlabor alias for an insular piece of brutalised Techno. Fellow Bunker man Elec Pt.1 offers up a deep piece of House before newcomer Goliath drenches speakers with warped out processor abstraction. You’re never too sure what is coming next across this two CD set. Heinrich Dressel brings some equilibrium, adding his soundtrack inspired sounds before Morphology’s Matti Turunen and then CRC offer some automated introspection. Dublin’s DeFeKT closes this treasure trove with a mechanical work with plumbed depths.
The double album including a magazine with artist interviews brings together musicians at the forefront of Electro. SOM Compilation Vol. 5 deals with a sound with quite strict parameters and shows what quality artists can do within such structures. Of course, a vinyl edition of this superb outing would have been nice but overall this is an impressive and accomplished outing that borders on the flawless.
SOM Compilation Vol. 5 is available on Solar One Music. [Release page]
