Square Bells

Square Bells

Octogen [Soma Recordings]

5 December, 2007 | 3.38PM

• Section: Music Recommendations
• Written by: Richard Brophy

Along with Alex Smoke, Marco Bernardi was one of Soma’s more astute recent signings.

The Glaswegian producer has two separate electro identities – he puts out grainy, visceral bass bumpers under his own name for Frustrated Funk and DUB, and then there’s Octogen, an outlet for his deeper, more reflective work.

‘Bells’, which borrows from the imagery used on the cover of Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells’ album - the album that made then fledgling businessman Richard Branson a rich man - opts for a third, less obvious route.

On ‘Ploughs & Clouds’, he worships at that other definitive Detroit style, techno, with stuttering, slinky rhythms providing the backdrop for a succession of dramatic UR-style string sequences.

‘Sunset Over Tao’ is inspired by the same sound, but it oozes sensuous melodies over more reduced, squelchy beats.

Bernardi returns to reflective, floaty electro on the title track, but it’s clear that he wants to expand his sound and possibly even create a third identity.

Let’s just hope that the squared bells on the cover aren’t a hint that this next move also involves him turning into a didgeridoo-playing hippie.

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