EP Review - SOKI2U 'Vortex'

PART 1 : Diary of a Madman

On the submission of the demo 'Madman' by SOKI2U to Bands Unsigned, I have to say that I did not get it. Technically excellent and absorbing, but it felt as if it was like a single piece of a jigsaw with the rest of the puzzle missing.

A few weeks later, the EP 'Vortex' arrived and the puzzle was solved. 'Madman' was just the start of a journey, a wondeful dark and disturbing journey of 7 songs about the 'Diary of a Madman.'

The EP is a superb collaboration of talent by Derek Schuurman, Jane Robins and Brendan Lynch. All three add diversity, unique identities and solo styles to this outstanding EP.

The Bands Unsigned No 1 Hit 'Madman' is the openning track and commences the diary of someone who is so mentally fragile that they virtually no longer exist. It it left to the imagination as to why. Possibly drugs or a mental illness.

There are few albums that can convey the journey of someone going thru intense darkness but this trio pull it off with amazing understanding, sensitivity and empathy. This combines not only technical excellence, but the ability to transfer vision, pain, loneliness and illness into music and lyrics.

The Diary of a Madman can stand on its own against most of the competition, but SOKI2U goes another few miles and adds a Part 2 to the VORTEX EP called 'GREY DAYS'.

PART 2 : Grey Days

Grey Days' provides an additional 5 songs that are unrelated to Part 1 and each other, but they show off the diversity of SOKI2U and the individual song writing talent of the trio.

'Broken Parts' stands out and follows the gothic, depressive and forboding style of SOKI2U. " The song is in 3 parts and is about a car accident victim. In part 1, a young man dies in a car crash and is seen by Jane in a telepathic dream. In part 2, Derek sings to backwards music where the the victim's soul migrates thru a 'portal' with hundreds of other souls, into the 'next world'. In part 3, the man returns as a bitter, angry ghost to haunt the place where his life was taken prematurely.

'The music was recorded in 1998 and the words were added after a long conversation about various spiritual things in 2004'

Derek and Jane are described as 'soul mates who have an incredible working relationship'. With their dark thoughts, they must be a barrel of laughs at a party. Jane quips 'we are a right pair of miserable bastards'.

Brendan brings the feelgood factor to the relationship. It is Brendon who wrote 'forgiveness' (Part 1), Contortion (Part 2) and the final song on the EP 'Remembering'.

One of Derek's friends has a Phd in music who comments that 'balancing Derek's and Jane's dark, melancholic and moody songs with Brendan's more feelgood material is a very clever trick". As Derek's friend has a Phd., who am I to argue?

The Vortex album is about SOKI2U finding their feet in terms of the trio working together and exploring mixing and mastering techniques. In each of the demos they play their own parts and perform their own lead vocals Much of the arrangement is done individually but they come together colectively for the production.

For this to work, there must be trust and friendship rather than competition and rivalry. This goes against many natural instincts and I would love to be a fly on the wall when they disagree. I do wonder if this in some respects confuses the EP. For me, the 'Diary of a Madman' is a complete package. Why then add a Part2 of different unrelated material? It is not actually needed on this EP and it does feel just a little overcrowded. This could have arisen out of a compromise to display a mixture of their individual material and to satisfy each member.

As Derek says, 'all 3 of us had large selections of tracks to choose from.', 'we didn't necessarily select our most commercially viable tracks - we chose the ones we really wanted to bring to life.' The danger in doing this is that the EP and indeed the band could lose its identity in the minds of some. However, on the positive side, why not break from tradition and give listeners variety. Neither is wrong on its own but mixing a theme (Part 1) and variety (Part2) seems unecessary. Its a bit like trying to eat a main course and desert at the same time, mixing the flavours and textures.

Conclusion

spend much time entertaining guests, colleagues and friends and the other day I played 'Vortex' after a dinner party whilst we were sat down for coffee and liquers. The comments by my guests included 'Who is this, I don't recognise them they are excellent', 'What! they arn't a large commercial band' and 'I would buy this from HMV'. In essence they passed this most telling of tests.

An EP has to be a distinguished work to grace my living room whilst entertaining guests and I had no hesitation with Vortex. For that, they get our EP of distinction 'Platinum Award'