TITLE- [ SOMA RASA'S SOUND BYTE ] PLASTIC MAGAZINE ISSUE 4 PUBLISHED:1998   WRITER: RACHEL JOHNSTON

Soma is a term used in Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World", it was a drug used to bring the world to one consciousness, one level. In Buddhism, Rasa means a metaphysical space between thoughts, the void…..the Rasa. Fuse the two together and you come up with a concept that could perfectly describe the sound and style of Soma Rasa, a crew that in an amazingly short space of time, have become one of the leading acts in the Australian electronic scene. I spent a hazy afternoon talking with Bill and Dan about the entity that is Soma Rasa.

"Danny and I are the main core of Soma Rasa, the songwriters. Danny plays drums live, and I play around with samplers. Shannon is our DJ, providing the wickety wak, and Copasetic sometimes drops in vocal samples, be it live or from vinyl. We also have a friend Craig who does a lot of live bass with us, mainly just in recording. But he did do some live shows down south with us. Were also have guest MC's and muso's when we play live. Apart from Dan, myself and our DJ, it's never a set line up - we change all the time, it keeps things fresh.

"There's a certain crew of people that make Soma Rasa happen, Skrichy is our mixer, he plays in dub band Broken Head, so he is really down with dub techniques, effects, delays. We've got an engineer we can totally trust to look after our sound".

We mull over the impressive list of bands and Dj's Soma Rasa have been associated with in their short history of 18 months - Wall Of Sound tour, Fatboy Slim, Livid and Pushover Festivals, Regurgitator, Meta Bass'n'Breath, Mystic Journey Men (U.S) and surprise support for Fugazi.

"We're sort of this crossover raw dance style, I guess our support comes more from the DJ/electronic scene rather than the band scene. But, having said that we had a successful tour down south with Regurgitator, and we've played with Fugazi."

A band that supports Fugazi, then shares a stage with Ollie Teeba of the Herbaliser/Ninja Tune family indicates a certain versatility in their accessibility to an audience. With this noted, their style of sound now comes into question…. Sonic scaffolding, fractured rhythms, layered textures - in a resonating age of recycling and sampling, how does one produce the huge sound that is Soma Rasa?

It seems everything revolves around beats and a sampler. The technological advancement of samplers and music software, has meant your average punter can afford to practically build a basic home studio, revolutionising music all over the world. The copyright laws can't keep up with people lifting beats and sounds, resulting in total open market on music history. Dan is quick to explain Soma Rasa's stance on the issue. "There are so many different line ups and processes within Soma Rasa. We spend time sampling our own live beats and guitar, bass, flute or trumpet, whatever. Danny and I then loop it, arrange it and mix it up live, pretty much everything we record is original sounds"

"It's easy to sound generic with samples," Danny agrees, "we don't use any hooks or grabs, the rhythms are break beat oriented, that's what gets people dancing - accessible beats, then we inject sounds to take you elsewhere, but the sounds and effects are Soma Rasa."

The band has recently launched their debut EP Soma Rasa. The CD (on Valve), contains six tracks and a CD Rom, capturing sounds the band are influenced by at the moment, hard dance groovin' jazz, hip hop. The track "Space" , is a collaboration between Soma Rasa's and the horn contingents of Taxi and Meta Bass'n'Breath. Two tracks were recorded live at the Zoo, because according to the band, Soma Rasa's best sonic moments are live.

"The way we have approached recording has been a bit of an experiment, partly from lack of cash, but also because we're cool with it, we try to do the best we can with the equipment we've got. That's how hip-hop started, a DJ and a mike, music has evolved through not having equipment, it keeps it real. Of course it would be nice…." Bill sighs.

Danny continues, "Lee Skratch Perry used to bury his tapes in the garden to get an organic feel - let mother nature take care of the sound! The raw feel of the CCD reflects the recording process, it's not meant to be a shmick recording, it's an honest reflection of where we are now, a small snapshot, it's been a pretty long process, so it is a relief to have it finished."

Producing a CD-Rom is quite rare with any band, let alone a debut release. It's an inspired first effort that showcases two film clips "Dirty" and "Flavour" in a unique cut and paste style edit. Dan has just completed a degree in film (he made the "Dirty" clip at uni with local filmier Tim Roane) and so has a vested interest in the visual side of things.

"The film clips are a direct representation of the music, the process is similar to putting the music tracks together, we work well with visual artists Mutant Media, friends of ours who approach vision through similar processes as our music. They produced "Flavour", and are often integrated into our live shows."

Soma Rasa are a band to keep both ears on, I'm assured of future collaboration projects, shows down south, vinyl remixes, film soundtracks. As one music journo wrote - "see them, buy them, make them rich".

RACHEL JOHNSTON