Bleep

Before there was Phoenecia, there was Soul Oddity. The duo of Romulo Del Castillo and Joshua Kay landed on Astralwerks in 1996, dropping three EPs that lead up to their debut album Tone Capsule. A name change to Phoenecia with the inaugural Randa Roomet EP on Warp foresaw over 20 years of collaboration on their own label Schematic, drawing a bridge over the Atlantic by adopting the UK’s post-rave electronica sound. It was Soul Oddity, however, that first set sail, and their debut has become a cult classic in the 26 years since.

Initiating Control Freak Recordings’ reissue sublabel, Tone Capsule finds its first release in over two decades. With this remastered edition, it’s clear that this sound hasn’t aged at all: the album is as energetic as it is explorative, its detailed layers of cerebral synths meeting the distinctly North American flair of bouncing electro beats. ‘Welcome Back To Earth’ is a prime example, its angular drips of acid synths bubbling up from slow motion whalesong conversations, merging outer space with deep sea in a far out, undeniably danceable opener.

Lasers fly throughout the extraterrestrial sound sculptures of ‘Little Alien’, with an Earthly touch of party pumping vocal samples amidst the sonic manipulations. ‘Clipped’ carries the weight of a murky, underground reconnaissance mission with its throbbing bass and mechanical stutters and whirrs, amplified by the heavy, imposing slams of dancefloor energy on ‘DJ Tokyo’. Guttural bass and abstracted beats dart at lightspeed on ‘Fugue’, showing off the free spirited nature of 90s electronica.

Not only does this reissue of Tone Capsule contain some of the best of an almost 30 year old sound, but it also shows how Soul Oddity laid the groundwork for many scenes to come.