SOISONG - XAJ3Z (CLEAR SMOKE VINYL)

1. Amkhapaa
2. J3z
3. T-hu Ri Toh
4. Mic Mo
5. Paer Tahm
6. Dtorumi
7. Lom Tum Lai Kwee
8. Ti-Di-Ti Naoo

SoiSong is the bright, stunning, and short-lived project conceived in 2007 by Ivan Pavlov(CoH) and Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson(of Coil). The duo combined Pavlov’s uncompromisingly visceral digital aesthetics with Sleazy's decadent, dark and whimsical approach to creation. Primarily located on the Eastern Pacific Rim, the two named the project after the Thai word for ‘two’ (song), as well as the seedy red-light quarters ("gloomy Soi’s, or alley-ways") of Bangkok. 

Together, they developed a unique, elegant, yet rather cryptical musical language. SoiSong’s debut full-length xAj3z is a digital reference to jazz: seemingly acoustic, effervescent, boundary-breaking, digital-era entertainment where light rays and tropical heat are backed up by zeroes and ones. The album is a defining statement, and an arbiter of the possibilities in the (then-)developing late-2000s music landscape.

Without the desire to be commercial, or convenient, SoiSong was not beholden to the conventions of easily defined tagging, and, in their own, "new, as-yet-un-categorizablegenre," with xAj3z being its masterwork. xAj3z freely mixes musical styles and combines various approaches to music making: artificial vocalists are accompanied by real drums, jazz-noir arrangements meet the delicate melodics of the South Seas, and computers are made to sound warm and organic.

If you like this, why not check out other releases within our ambient music or experimental music category.