Overview
“Electro-Soma” is the debut studio album by B12, a British electronic music duo of Mike Golding (mixing) and Steve Rutter (mixing).
Commentary
The album was released on British independent record label Warp in 1993 as the fourth release in Warp’s “Artificial Intelligence” series.
It is a compilation that includes the tracks previously released in 1991–1993 on B12 Records under their pseudonyms: Musicology, Redcell, and Cmetric.
It is a classic of intelligent dance music (IDM) and ambient techno, which is strongly influenced by Detroit techno.
The album features techno by heavy use of synthesizers, such as Roland’s digital synthesizer JD-800. Though the rhythm tracks are in the Detroit techno style, it contains many emotional and melodic compositions including beautiful synth strings.
It is suitable for home listening rather than club listening.
It is characterized by its imaginative world-view inspired by science fiction and associated with space and future.
The 2-CD remastered edition with “Electro-Soma II”, a compilation of rare tracks, was released as “Electro-Soma I + II Anthology” by Warp in 2017.
