Soil by Socko & Teel

New number to come out the A Tribe Called Kotori pipes, here’s a special delivery from Yerevan-based talent Socko and three-man outfit, Teel. Bridging over the lushest palette of house, broken beat, Afro-funk and jazz, all injected with a healthy dose of Armenian folk tropes within the same breath, “Soil” presses us through a cross-continental, all-embracing musical journey that lacks neither club-friendly oomph, nor mystique-imbued richness.

Lead-single “Soil” paves the way on a summer heartbreak kind of vibe, fusing the healing power of sun-washed harmonics along with mountain flutes, ancient incantations and prismatic synths in levitation; each bar swashing like that longed-for invitation to cast off and bring your senses back to life, eventually. A full-on jacking, future-facing affair laced with traditional choirs and instrumentation, “Reenno” takes its cultural DNA out for a fevered ride across far-out cosmic territories – where anchored folk tropes coalesce with club-optimised escapology to dazzling effect.

The further opaque, sludge-y motif’d “Yaman” busts even more obviously the “ancient-modern” dichotomy that innervates the whole of “Soil” via a cross-pollinated mash-up of desert rock riffs, Sufi-like ritualism and bass-fuelled floor dynamics. Weirdo chugger “Lava” translates its magmatic heat through jagged seesawing EBM synths and a more nocturnal energy, whereas “Peyote” returns to a luminously euphoric headspace through a surgically deft mix of African-influenced polyrhythms, processed traditional chants, wild riffs and entrancing darbukkah solos.

released September 30, 2022