Electro-Soma
Review by Zoë Blade
| Electro-Soma | |
 | |
| Artist | B12 |
|---|---|
| Label | Warp Records |
| Year | 1993 |
| Rating | ★★★★☆ |
| Summary | Consistently good, but never great, ambient techno. |
Electro-Soma is very similar to the chilled parts of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85-92 and FUSE's Dimension Intrusion. All three are albums I'd recommend to fans of ambient techno, but while the other two feature a full spectrum of music from the beautiful to the scary, Electro-Soma is consistently good, at the expense of never being great.
To make this album, B12 used well known techno sounds from eighties synthesisers, including the ubiquitous Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines. While this can be seen as a drawback, preventing the album from sticking out amongst the crowd, it's arguable that those preset sounds are popular for good reason. Similarly, B12 stuck pretty closely to the known formula for making ambient techno tracks, and the resulting mixes are good yet not particularly original.
Despite all this, B12 managed to come up with something sufficiently interesting to warrant giving this album a listen. They combined solid beats, pleasant filter noodling and catchy melodies to create a funky, chilled atmosphere. What they lacked in innovation, they made up for with consistency and quality.
While B12 didn't push the boundaries of music, Electro-Soma serves as a good introduction to the ambient techno genre, and as perfect music to chill to.