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THE SOMATICS – Did You Ever Love Me? (Misc Records)

Posted: November 16th, 2004, by Stuart Fowkes

It was our grumpy pals in Six By Seven who wearily trawled on about ‘another love song’, I believe, and here are two more to add to the list, as the Somatics offer us a quickfire one-two with ‘Did You Ever Love Me?’ backed with ‘We Never Loved You’. The Somatics featured Richard Green of Ultrasound, but there’s little of that band’s epic pomposity in The Somatics’ slimmed-down, taut arrangements – the lead track here is nicely composed but ultimately unremarkable frippery. You’d probably hum along to it if it found its way onto daytime radio, but it’s too insubstantial to hold up to too much repeated listening. Angel Delight rock.

Perversely, the tracks get better from here – trebly guitars bolt out of the traps on ‘We Never Loved You’, and the song as a whole is powered by an urgency that puts the opener to shame. And over the six minutes of ‘Waiting’, the band open themselves up to exploring what they can do at leisure. Onerous pre-delay on the vocals thankfully sits low enough in the mix to avoid intruding too much, allowing guitar and keyboard drones gradually engulf the track until we’re in early nineties dream-pop territory. Can’t help the feeling that the band are reining themselves in throughout the three tracks, though, and are capable of much more interesting stuff. Here’s hoping.

The Somatics



Stuart Fowkes

Stuart is possibly one of the tallest people you have ever seen. He towers above your puny skyscrapers like Rodan on steroids, his blonde spikes puncturing the atmosphe re like crazed, gelled knives. In real life he is part of the Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element pop outfit, and writes for other websites as well as this one - the cheeky blighter. He favours the noisier end of the musical spectrum, with a fervour which would seem to indicate a dodgy heavy metal past.

http://www.oxfordbands.com

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