Delayed with... Solma
If you spend enough time wandering through SoundCloud’s deeper corners, certain names start appearing with suspicious frequency. Solma has been one of those names for us over the past year. We first wrote about his track Skaub last autumn and since then his output has been difficult to escape. New productions, DJ recordings, collaborations… Every few weeks, there seemed to be another reason to stop and pay attention.
What keeps drawing us back is the particular world Solma inhabits. His music is difficult to pin down stylistically. Different influences surface throughout his productions and DJ sets, but emotionally, the coordinates remain surprisingly consistent. Murky, hypnotic, slightly alien. His contribution to the series follows a similar logic.
The mix grows slowly from the ground up, driven by fractured low-end pressure and metallic percussion that feels almost ritualistic at times. There is a mechanical quality to the progression, but not in a rigid sense. Listening to it feels more like observing an unfamiliar organism taking shape. New parts emerge from the shadows, connect with one another, disappear again, and return in altered form.
What I enjoyed most was that Solma never forces momentum. The energy increases gradually, almost imperceptibly. Before you realize it, the mix has moved from murky introspection into something that borders on trance. Then, just as the machinery reaches full operating speed, he pulls away from the hypnotic repetition, breaks the groove, and allows melody to enter the frame. The effect is subtle but powerful. Suddenly, the set reveals an emotional side that had been hiding beneath the surface all along.
The destination matters, but the journey getting there is where Solma does his best work.