Leipzig based Solar One Music have collected tracks from some of today’s freshest underground electro operatives for this, the fourth instalment of their series of limited edition CD releases. Coming in custom packaging with stickers and a mysterious extra track for 20 lucky customers, you certainly feel like you have received something special when it drops through the door.

Welcoming to the small crew of us here at Darkfloor: Blackmass Plastics and his inaugural review.

Offering 13 individual tracks that compliment each other perfectly on its trip to the outer regions, the artists onboard all occupy an active but uncharted region of the musical cosmos. Realising that covert action can be far more effective in achieving longevity in today’s cultural hyperstream, the producers showcased here have built considerable bodies of work and crafted intriguing conceptual frameworks, whilst never utilising the day-glow style over substance self promotion tactics utilised by many to gain quick attention.

From the beatless sci-fi movie tension build up of the opening track ‘Fall‘ by Kan3da, the album lifts off into a zero gravity zone of futurist electronic experimentation. The highly productive Headnoaks delivers one of the best tracks I have heard from him in ‘Opiatrezeptor‘, a full tilt, rapid fire trip into a intergalactic battlezone of chopped synths and synaptic twitching percussion.

Followed immediately by a great slice of abstract funk from Luke Eargoggle on ‘Girlfriend from Madrid‘, eerie vocal cuts are driven with a monotonous arpeggiated acid line,with just enough warping bass weirdness to take the track into unsettling territory.

Clatterbox deliver ‘Singularity‘ on what is probably my favourite track on the release. A open throttle decent into a vortex of quantum theory sound design and phased spastic energy that will probably be still considered advanced in the 23rd century.

Anti-Zero agent, Aliensextoy, hammers out a cool piece of zombie speed electro on ‘Come back 2 life‘,a track that demonstrates an interesting movement by some producers towards a ‘new’ accelerated sound. Rather than produce music at ‘easy’ to dance to tempos with standard grooves, the listener is challenged to reach a higher level of mental stimulation in order to receive the funk in the music.

The album works well as a linear listening experience as well as offering some serious dancefloor ammunition. The low slung space grind of Crotaphytus‘ contribution ‘Cycle of life part 2‘, is a brief but effective headtrip, and The Exaltics ‘My point of view‘ manages to work on multiple levels of synchronicity during its three minute cycle before fading into the distance.

Although there are a diverse range of production styles and intents onboard, the album presents a coherent unified sound. The final tracks by Das Muster and Composite Profuse bring the compilation to an open ending, Solar One Music seem clear in their vision of what music should sound like in the 21st century.

You had better catch up with them…

Various – SOM Compilation 4.- Entertainment for Adults
GRAB

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Kan3da – Fall
Morphology – Dark Flow
Headnoaks – Opiatrezeptor
Luke Eargoggle – Girlfriend From Madrid
ESS – Comet ELEnin
Clatterbox – Singularity
Aliensextoy – Come Back 2 Life
Crotaphytus – Cycle Of Life (Part 2)
The Exaltics – My Point Of View
Weltwirtschaft – Maud
Das Muster – Massendynamik
Composite Profuse – Die U-Bahn Mörderin