Soma Coma

Glasgow’s Soma Records are generally known for their futuristic techno and underground house. But that’s not the full story, as their latest compilation, ‘Soma Coma’ — out now — demonstrates.

Focusing on downbeat, electronica and ambience, with a smidgeon of Detroit techno and hip-hop for good measure, ‘Soma Coma’ compiles tracks for the head rather than the feet. Label head honchos Slam contribute two tracks, one a more ambient effort (‘This Is’), and the second, ‘Bright Lights Fading’, a neon-lit cyborg soul missive, augmented by the lush larynx of Billie Ray Martin.

Alex Smoke’s melancholic ‘Don’t See the Point’ is reshaped by connoisseur of all things deep, Henrik Schwarz, who transforms the track into a weird but devastating amalgam of subtle dancehall bounce and abstract jazz piano, before taking off into four/four territory. The result is a seriously lush dose of goodness that you need in your life.

The finest moment is perhaps Silicone Soul’s ‘Burning Sands’, an impossibly dramatic, filmic panorama of smouldering electroid atmospherics and subtle electric guitar. Evoking the old school computer game soundtrack ‘Shadowrun’, (for all you geeks out there!), this is epic material.

Maas’ ‘Look At Me Now, Falling’ gets the remix treatment from Mass Zoyd + Prairie, who bring the original into lazy, psyche funk territory, all humping bass and Rhodes keyboard licks. The whole compilation stands as one of the very best collections of this kind of music — like a modern version of Warp’s ‘Artificial Intelligence’ series but with its own cohesive identity. Highly recommended.