Artist: Funk D'Void & Phil Kieran
Title: White Light / Black As You Like
Label: Soma Records
By: Andy Dixon | 7 May 2007
Tracklist:

• A: White Light
• B: Black As You Like

Funk D'Void & Phil Kieran "White Light / Black As You Like"

Funk D'Void is best known for his string filled ‘Diabla', the 2001 ending track of Danny Howells and others with its big bassline and overwhelming emotion. Phil Kieran is a still relative unknown student of straight techno from the Northern Ireland capital of Belfast. Together they are on Soma records for their AA release, featuring 'White Light' and 'Black As You Like'.

'White Light' shows a little bit of both the cooks in the kitchen. The pure tech house beat influenced by the minimal Kieran while the strings and melody are inklings of one of Soma's founding artists in Lars Sandberg. Its build is slow but it uses good key shifts to move laterally through phrases.

'Black As You Like' is a clinic in techno. Its minimal machinery could be by the Plastikman himself. A profusion of FX, glitch, and systematic percussion are at the heart of this sleeping giant. But it never really wakes up for me. It contains some elements of interest, including a blip that mimics one in the fun Zinger Meats Spry track 'Story of the Heaviest Bassline Ever' and a snail paced vocal clip cut beyond intelligibility.

'White Light' has some great potential and 'Black As You Like' could be a real find if looking for some good minimal. But if you trend to lots of movement, this release might not be the borderline techno you crave.