Soma continues to dive into deeper waters with the hard, yet soulful sounds of Lakej who pushes his signature Swechno sound that is modern, funky, and hard as nails on his most recent “Field Of Vision” EP.
Ever since the Soma heads McMillan and Meikle (of the duo “Slam”) started pushing their older “Paragraph” label concept to Soma, it’s taken on a no-holds-barred ruthless approach to the music from which original ideas that Soma had pushed, such as funky and soulful techno mixed with harder-edged drums as a back, seems to have been set aside save for a few releases. The Paragraph label was an exploration of the edgier side of Slam jettisoning all the slower, jammy trappings of the Soma ideal. With the flames of new harder techno, an audience thirsting for this sound, and the Paragraph label well buried in 2014, it made sense to push the concept of the Soma label in this direction. Though it seems like the Soma label is finding more music to fit within this world that is both forward-thinking, hard-edged, and funky, yet still retains a decent groove to keep one’s heart fulfilled. And that in itself is a very Soma concept, and it is what’s represented in Lakej’s music.
Lakej, aka Filip Ström, grew up with the sound of Stockholm in his field of vision, and undoubtedly it shaped his sound. But as we’ve seen with other modern Swedish techno musicians, they don’t exist within a vacuum. And while they certainly hold onto their classic, slamming Swedish techno sound as their birthright, they still maintain and push techno into new and interesting directions. Lakej’s darker, more hypnotic techno on Nachtstrom Schallplatten, the future-forward ideas presented on Faut Section, and the deeply atmospheric and heavy hypnotic vibes off Edit Select’s label show a different side to his sound, while this most recent “Field Of Vision” release from him on the Soma label gives off deep and groovy Swedish techno vibes. The aforementioned gritty and heavily hypnotic atmospheres are still present and blended with the filtered Swedish techno loops and a solid drum track to firm it all up.
A good example of this particular sound is seen on “Later is Harder,” where the Swedish techno loops are well compressed and filtered, and the straight kick is a contrast to the meat of the track. Similarly, “Modified” is a continuation of this concept, with the meat of the track being modified over time. “In Retrospect” abandons the Swedish techno loops in favor of a groovy, low mid bass line but still takes on Lakej’s love for high-end atmospherics and distortion as a counterpart and static line within the mix. The last track on the EP, “Safety In Numbers,” seems like a hybrid of all the styles and a great conclusion of statements wrapped up in one track—as if to say, this is what represents the artist most at this point in time.
In summation, Lakej and Soma represent what’s really going on in techno. Soma always leads the sonic charge and listens carefully as to what direction they can help push techno in. Lakej is certainly a part of this concept and seems to be at the right cross-section of techno ideas at this moment in history—the harder, darker German techno, the Iberian techno, the hard yet funky hypnotic sounds of Glasgow, and of course, the classic concepts of Stockholm are all here. All in all, this ”FIeld Of Vision” EP is a great representation of what techno is right now in 2023.
-Sean Ocean
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