(Soma/Stomp)

Side A: Les Nocturnes (8.23)
Side B: Devil Drives (Darkroom Dubs version) (9.04)

UK-based tech-house duo Silicon Soul (aka Craig Morrison and Graeme Reedie) have been very quiet on the release front during the three years following the runaway success of their 2001 12” ‘Right On!’, but they certainly haven’t been sitting idly during this time, both DJing around the world and also building up their own Darkroom Dubs imprint (which has released records from the likes of Carl ‘Voice Stealer’ Finlow and Ralph Lawson). This brand new 12” from Silicon Soul , ‘Les Nocturnes’ breaks this comparative silence from the pair and also acts as a preview of the duo’s upcoming album ‘Staring Into Space’ (expected early next year through Soma Recordings).

For ‘Staring Into Space’ Silicone Soul have apparently drawn upon a wide range of their different influences including dub, disco, house, techno and rock, with their main aim being to ‘make an album with a vibe running through it, rather than a ‘house’ album’, with this first single ‘Les Nocturnes’ apparently inspired by the feeling of driving around the streets of Paris at night.

On the A-side of this 12”, ‘Les Nocturnes’ opens with what almost sounds like a spoken blues samples, before shimmering bleeping synths arc their way around a tight punching tech-house beat that slowly introduces Chicago house-esque pads and a warm, funk-infused bassline beneath the crisp snares. There’s also an underlying sheeny disco-funk feel throughout that’s brought out even more by the lush synth-string breakdowns that add a certain sense of cold European vampiness to proceedings, and add an almost underlying Cerrone /Giorgio Moroder-styled flavour to the polished tech-house template.

On the flip, ‘Devil Drives’ (here presented in its Darkroom Dubs house version, as opposed to the downtempo mix that will apparently appear on the forthcoming album), ventures towards darker, more echoey tech-house rhythms, with eerie building synthetic whirs making their dubbed-out way beneath a tight punching 4/4 beat that injects just the right amount of relentless percussive rattle below some brooding keys and bass For my money, it’s also by far the pick of the two tracks on offer here, with some fantastic trumpet runs adding some nice smoky atmosphere to the streamlined beats and whirring textures – fans of the likes of Slam and Laurent Garnier will want to check ‘Devil Drives’ out for sure.

A strong 12” release from Silicone Soul which bodes good things for their upcoming ‘Staring Into Space’ album, expected early ‘05, and those who enjoyed the fusions of disco, tech-house and classic electro Slam explored on their recent ‘Year Zero’ album should most definitely give this some investigation.

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