Somatic Responses - Clone Aware FLAC download

The prolific Somatic Responses (click here for Igloo Magazine Profile) are back on Acroplane for a second release on their label. This time on the label’s for pay side (2009′s Mercury was on the free line). On this eight track digital release, they present a sound that is tense, jarring, and claustrophobic. All of the tones used are unique and very deeply processed; one would liken it to an alien life form trying to interpret the music of earth, pulling in the elements that make sense to it and then spitting it out using its own language and technology. As Clone Aware is a relatively short release, there are no filler tracks and each of the pieces stands out on its own. The album starts off with the excellent “Hyperboyeee” (see audio stream below) with a simple beat and samples from one of hip hop’s better known jesters. This mutates quickly in to Somatics’ trademark dissonant synths and fractured beats. The standout track is “Falling Through Ice” (see audio stream below) with its chaotically processed vowel sounds and distorted drum sounds. Also of note is “Oddjob Dubjob” which dips into dubstep territory but carefully navigates away from all of the cliches that have been plaguing the genre. The album rounds out with “Batou Beats;” a mutated acid stomper –the fastest and most driving of the tracks featured on Clone Aware. A fitting end to a wonderful release. Clone Aware is a must have for current fans of Somatic Responses and for those into the more crunchy and distorted side of electronic music.

Opening the floodgate with the 1st of 8 tracks comes Hyperboyeee. An electrodubsteppa and make no mistake. Space kicks and scifi dubbed vox stabs support the stepping beat programming. Gritty around the edges without going over the top. Mutant work. Open Wound is again drenched in dripping electronic ooze. Beat wise she’s more upfront and aggressive than the opening track. Imagine if you will a big rusty robot chundering through a b-movie film and you’re sort of thinking what I’m thinking off as I type this. Falling Through Ice is the 3rd track. Scattered sound files spark up and glitch about whilst a big bold bass tone builds up steam in the sub dermal layer of the track. Busy element wise with an overriding eerieness bought out by the spooky synths. It’s a sort of restrained mental freakout this one. The track gives the impression it wants to go a bit more out there, but it’s held down as midway it goes into a more grand presentation of itself. Seems like there are too many ideas battling for space in the track so for me it comes off as overtly hectic. Full Auto Load returns to a foreboding but altogether better realized and behaved track, the little skit with the beats and the wavey synths adds a nice reprieve for the ensuing crunchy filth. Great track this, the Somatic brothers have nailed it with this one. A chunky, mutant, rasping and at times grandeur track showing off their prowess for complex dislocated broken beats together with intriguing sonic constructs. Clone Aware, as well as being the title track and 5th in the lineup, is also, although fractured and crunchy, a deeper roller. Come the drop and she’s putting on weight, building up the elements as she does before shedding them as she winds down into a final spurt of synth. Oddjob Dubjob is an altogether sharper affair. Big bass rolls out of the floodgates and in many respect this is what I could imagine Autechre making dubstep would sound like. Stutters, glitches, dropouts, short dumps of noise, waning sub and a collectively dank presentation. An intense wall of sound is outlaid over the 6 and a half minutes. Penultimate track, the honestly named Obligatory Album Track comes in at 7th on the tracklist and lightens the mood just a touch, laying off as she does the heavier bass for a no less intricate track. The drones are lovely and the track feels like she is building you up for the final onslaught and coincidentally the final track of the 8. As subtly hinted at in the previous and above paragraph, Batou Beats is the 8th and final track of this EP release. Straight in with a stuttered electro’d offering complete with increasingly nibbling acid synth lines, morphing as the track develops in time into more of a technoid monster becoming more intense and paced. A fitting end to a rough, glitched distorted journey. Overall and with the exception of the overly busy and lacking 3rd track Falling Through Ice, this is a good package. We’ve the trademark sound signature from the Somatic brothers making for an at times intense ride of sonic exploration with it’s eyes largely focused on the dancefloor. Full Auto Load and Clone Aware are the top of the 8 for me. Available at the usual download.