Dromaius - Phobos

Hear The Track Here

Even though I have been a Soundclick resident now since 2002, I didn't actually start reviewing here until around April 2003. As soon as I'd started up reviewing here, Dromaius came up almost immediately, and made a very favourable impression on me. A major part of that attraction was because Dromaius made a much stronger, darker breed of electronica than I had been used to and - as you well know - I like my meat to be well bloody. Looking back now, I guess one of the reasons why I hadn't liked electronica up until that point was that I thought it kinda bland, highly formulaic and regimented.

Now, of course, the electronica we hear on Soundclick is the real deal, and about as inventive as any musical genre I am aware of, thanks to an endless troop of solid, reliable electronica musicians that - over the years - have completely changed my feelings about this genre. Phobos, Dromaius' new track, is a companion peice to Deimos which I reviewed back in January. It wasn't, I found, one of their better tracks but even their hohum peices have lots to offer. See, the thing that impressed me back in 2003 is still the thing that interests me about their work and I can sum it up in three words: detail, detail, detail...

It (the track) being an instrumental, it HAS to have more going for it than normal and - like Deimos - it doesn't fail on the interest level. More especially if you are a sound nut like yours truly who relishes something that sounds different. Phobos operates on a much jazzier level than Deimos though, and this is where it scores for me. It is essentially very linear, working the one groove as it were, using it as a frame to hang various sounds on. Admittedly their brand of electronica is not going to please everybody especially in this more experimental variety, but I found a lot to like in this odd, disjointed little track.

Electronica, but not as we know it Jim.....