For fans of Somatic Responses, Android Affair will be no surprise. Chalk it up as another solid EP that helps fill the gap between their last two records and opens the door for whatever comes next for the highly influential team from Wales.
You can tell just by listening to the music of Somatic Responses that they’re not from London or L.A. Only a landscape like a small and stark industrial mining town in the southwest of Wales in the United Kingdom could produce the brand of acid techno and breakcore found on the duo’s latest EP, Android Affair. Since the 1990’s brothers John and Paul Healy have been making the type of mechanical, repetitious music often associated with that region, which they have helped to define. With an established history in the breakcore scene and prolific writing abilities the duo has been able to pump out too many EP’s to count in the last decade, sprinkling in handfuls of full length albums along the way, including two just last year; the slower moving, pulsating ambience of Disruption of Space and the more abrasive hyperized drum and bass of Concrete Glider. Andriod Affair cleverly brings those styles together with an industrial conveyor belt of repeating gestures and infinitely throbbing rhythms.
Listening to any Somatic Responses record is like stepping into a factory where each sound is compartmentalized yet working in unison with all other sounds. Android Affair is no different. The opening and title track of the record cyclically rises and falls as a laser synth line acts as a constant guide throughout, finally dipping out for good as the next track on the 33-minute-long, six song EP eases in. “A 2-130” with its serial number-like title seems like the grand unveiling of a brand new product, every bolt and screw in place as it combines the energy of the previous track with a heavy sense of urgency.
“Not Taken up” steps back for a moment before gradually climbing to a weaving wall of chugging metallic sound. The EP’s centerpiece “Tachyon Opera” is the most unique track on the record with a marching 122bpm four to the floor kick, discordant sounds blipping in the background, tinny hi-hats, and a siren alarm echoing throughout. The final two tracks of Android Affair, though both titled “Terms of Reference Gwaith,” could not be more different. The first version, dubbed the “elektro” version plods along a muddy path, pounding out a heavy rhythmic kick drum, not unlike Aphex Twin’s “On,” while dark synth tones zip through the track’s ether. “Terms of Reference Gwaith Techno” returns to that sense of urgency first introduced on “A 2-130” with a ticking beat and layers of waving deep space rhythms that gradually pile up. “Gwaith Techno” isn’t as in-your-face as the preceding track but its constantly pulsating groove keeps the listener on edge until the layers peel off, a proper finish to a well rounded mix of techno traditionalism and polished electro on this release.
For fans of Somatic Responses, Android Affair will be no surprise. Chalk it up as another solid EP that helps fill the gap between their last two records and opens the door for whatever comes next for the highly influential team from Wales.
Android Affair is available on Subspec. Buy at Beatport, Amazon or iTunes.
