Somatic Responses nails it with their slant on groovy, noised-infused, rhythmic industrial-acid abstraction.
Somatic Responses is back full-force with their long-standing electronic fury on The Decision Tree for Acroplane, their third for the Belfast-based digital imprint. Here we see the prolific Healy brothers blast the ears with further hard-edged sonic concoctions—early Aphex Twin twists blending with Richard Devine-styled hardware manipulations and an industrial slant that grabs the senses with a vengeance. It’s the sort of thing you’d expect from such an experienced pair of left-field music enthusiasts that they’ve continued to experiment and gain momentum all the while.
The title track maneuvers in such a way that their modular machinery and synthesizer patches appear to be on fire with acid-washed noise —in a good way of course. Some of the pieces run the gauntlet with photon emissions piercing the airwaves as fractured bass, breaks, and distortion ricochet from all angles. And yet, there are built-in melodies that weave their way throughout to even out the production. “Portrait of a Welsh Girl” is rhythm heavy, its intensity, brooding, captivating, and gritty underbelly is a mind-bending industrial beauty. “When -ve>+ve” runs a similar trajectory with a ravished mechanical electro pulse, low-end thuds abound giving the bassbins a workout—a highlight on the album. Classic Autechrean stream of subconscious takes over “Heuristic Outputs” while Somatic Responses inhabits another planet with surreal glitch ‘n blips galore.
The aforementioned nod to Aphex Twin is even more prevalent on the acid drenched wobbling of “Signs Of Weakness,” a foreboding yet short-lived track with a punch. And this is what The Decision Tree does so well, its extraterrestrial electronic mayhem segues into and out of focus—at times crunching 1000s of metallic pieces into a textural swirl (ie. “Love Like a Quad Wnv”), and then shooting laser beams through a myriad of dark electronic abstraction (ie. “Spektro”) with utter control. Somatic Responses nails it with their slant on groovy, noised-infused, rhythmic industrial-acid abstraction.
The Decision Tree is available on Acroplane.
