I’m not familiar with Silicone Soul’s earlier work, but this is their fourth album on Soma Recordings, the label that brought us Slam, Funk D’Void, and many other ‘progressive’ house acts that emerged from Scotland in the early nineties. It’s a pretty standard UK house affair, rarely straying from tight grooves, tidy bass lines, delay drenched pads and stabs, with the occasional filtered vocal sample. It picks up though, on the odd occasion that it strays from this formula, particularly on tracks Koko’s Song, and David Vincent’s Blues. Koko’s Song, the albums lead track, opens with a repeated laid-back electric guitar riff, subtle feedback, and amp buzz, under which a groove slowly builds to a break featuring more delayed feedback and some live percussion; an engaging, yet harmless six and a half minutes. David Vincent’s Blues picks up where Koko’s song left off, with more subtle guitar riffs over a very loose disco groove. The track has a late night jam feel to it, and stands apart from the rest of album, simply by being different. Seasons Of Weird opens with a promise of this same loose-jam-vibe but lapses into a tired synth line that repeats ad infinitum.
Overall, this is too monochromatic.
Ben Askins
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