20 Years Of Soma: Silicone Soul 2001 Mix

As the Soma label revels in the critical appreciation of their ‘20 years of...’compilation we are getting all too close to the 10th month of this, their celebratory year. This October the real celebrations are set to take place in Glasgow at their old haunt the Arches and also her in Farringdon.

For this spectacular event that marks two decades in the record business, Soma are taking over two entire rooms and are bringing a positive banquet of sounds with them, hand picking seven artists to populate the soundsystems. Silicone Soul are among those chosen to purvey their own brand of techno and as particularly important friends of the label they’ve also mixed one of the three discs of the aforementioned ‘20 years of’ compilation. Here we relive some of their favourite Soma moments, discuss the new Soma 20 compilation and talk about this mix recorded in 2001, dusted down from their personal archive.

DOWNLOAD: Silicon Soul 2001 Mix From the Archive



As we’re all about 20 years of Soma at the moment please can you describe how you came to be such a big part of things?
There's certainly a family feel to the label, we've all become really close friends over the years and they were the only label we wanted to sign to. That was back in '98 but we'd known Dave and Glenn for a quite a while previously from parties and 'Slam at the Arches'. I went to the opening night when I was 17. There was a really strict curfew in Glasgow around that time and I remember before we knew each other, pleading with Dave to let us in to club after hours. Then four years ago he was best man at my wedding, it's surprising how life pans out sometimes. I suppose also, aside from Darkroom Dubs, Soma are the only label we've released our own productions on so that could be another reason.

We've made four albums now and countless singles, so there's a very big connection between us both. Also we're very much on the same wavelength and share the same philosophy to music. A lot of times it can be the 'all hands on deck' scenario. So we help with most things, anything really. It can be remixing, promotion, organising and we're always chatting, bouncing ideas and giving suggestions. We used to have our studio next door to the office, I think we almost had to do some painting once but we managed to avoid that luckily!

What’s been your favourite Soma moment from over the years?
We've been asked this a lot as you can imagine and musically it really is too difficult to say, there's been so many wonderful moments. My favourite things about it over the years are having the good fortune to enjoy it with my best friend from school and the indelible friendships created in that time at Soma, old and new.

Soma isn’t the only label to be celebrating 20 years in business – a sign dance music maturing and really showing its longevity and it’s something that’s here to stay – did you think it’d be this big?
One conclusion you can draw I suppose from that is quality endures, as in any other style of music. It was pretty big when we started, maybe not in such a massive global sense but there were 'superclubs' and dance music had already crossed over and house music was already very commercialised but we're really happy that people still enjoy our particular style of music, fashions move with the times but I don't see dancing to 4/4 beat ever becoming unpopular soon.

How do you think your project Silicone Soul has progressed along this timeline?
We just keep doing our thing and hope people like it too, really.

Your mix on Soma 20 - how did you go about the track selection for that?
It was challenging but in a really enjoyable and rewarding way, especially hearing the original wav masters of some of your favourite vinyl releases blasting out of your studio speakers was a true pleasure. We tried our best to give the back catalogue the justice it deserves. The track selection was difficult, especially trying to condense 20 years of great music into 80 minutes but we tried to find a balance and reflect the different styles on the label. I think we've managed to squeeze most of them on the CD! Also, to include the stonewall classics like, 'Positive Education" and "Alive". But also tracks that really mean something personally like ''Percussion Obsession', "Scoraig '93" & ‘Requiem’ and to bring a cohesion to the whole mix by adding something of ourselves as well, as Dj's and producers, like the 'Together Until The Sun Edit' at the end.

What would you say is your number one Soma classic track that means the most to you and why?
Another tricky one. I'd say ‘Rejuvenation "Requiem’ for the awesome production and it's sheer anthemic qualities. Otaku "Percussion Obsession", as this was the first dance record we both bought and Daft Punk "Alive", for it's full on pounding rawness.

This mix was recorded in 2001 - what memories does it bring back?
Definitely brilliant memories, it was a fine year. It's actually really nice to hear that mix again, I'm listening to it now. There's a lot of dubby, tribal, tripped-out West-Coast - style music on there which we were right into, even a couple of tracks we'd later sign when we first launched Darkroom Dubs and the last track is a remix we made for Dj Loutka on a Czech label, Beeswax.

We did a couple of really cool parties for them over there that year. 2001 was when we really started to Dj internationally so in many ways it was a defining year for us. It was that year we first played at fabric too.

Can you tell us about some of the records you play in the mix - any classics that still hold true to you?
Every record really but apart from those mentioned, I'd say our remix of Shatrax. The original is a true classic and it was a joy and privilege to remix it, so much so we spent over four months on it! Also H - Foundation's remix of our Chic-o- Laa track. I can remember down at our club night in Glasgow, on the dancefloor and Acquaviva dropped it. We just looked and each other and went, "Oh Yeah!" and also "Right On, Right On". It's mad even to this day sometimes if you don't play it, the promoter and a lot of the people at the party look genuinely really disappointed; that never fails to surprise us.

Turning our attentions to the present day - what new sounds do you like that have been coming in over the last year?
We've been focusing a lot of our attention on our own label, Darkroom Dubs and finding a lot of music quite different and refreshing. Acts like Of Norway, Freska, Jairo Catelo, Alex Niggemann, Edu Imbernon, Klartraum and Hatikvah amongst others. Robag Wruhme made two wonderful remixes for our limited edition vinyl series. His album "Thora Vukk" was superb, probably top of the pile album-wise this year as was Kollektiv Turmstrasse's. There's so many great new artist and labels. Of the top of my head, recently we came across a label "Son of Cataclysm" with all the music produced by Stewart Walker - all really cool, interesting tracks. Thodoris Triantafillou & CJ Jeff - Not Only U Feat. Chris Tatchell (Rhythmetic Records), Skinnerbox - Purgatory Five (Bpitch), Henry Oakley - Mellowmarsh (Falk) and Gulivert - Change (Catwash), which is pure, gospel classic house joy, will all be in our Top 10 for this year. On the Soma front, Deepchord's Hash-Bar Loops was really top drawer, I hear scientists are trying to inventing the technology to chart those depths of deepness!

What new talent have you seen emerging and think will still be around doing good things in 20 years time?
Glasgow continues to be a hotbed of new talent right now as it always has been. Gary Beck, Sei A and Harvey McKay are really charging ahead, flying the flag for Scottish tech. There's Jackmaster and the Numbers crew ofcourse, Animal Farm, Sunday Circus and the new Subculture residents, Esa & Telford. Also Vakama (Conor Dalton), he's recently made his Soma debut on Soma Coma and he also mastered all the tracks and mixes for this compilation.