Album Review

Noisia – Split The Atom

• 9th Apr 2010

Noisia is the brainchild of dutch drum and bass producers Nik Roos, Martijn van Sonderen and Thijs de Vlieger. Famous for their huge remixes of Pendulum’s – Painkiller and Eurythmics’ – Sweet Dreams, they’ve sent shockwaves throughout the underground drum and bass scene for the last few years, collaborating within this time with Black Sun Empire, The Freestylers & The Upbeats.

2010 sees them release their first full feature length album of their own material. Split The Atom, with contributions from Amon Tobin, Foreign Beggars and Giovanca, it looks good on paper, but I happen to feel otherwise.

Split The Atom comes in at a lengthy 19 tracks, with a total runtime of just under an hour, making it an album for someone with a large amount of time to really knuckle down too it. I personally found myself skipping between tracks to really get into it.

Contrary to the previous point, the album seems to be a real step up for Noisia, combining a range of styles we haven’t previously seen them doing.

Split The Atom skips between everything from dub influenced ambience to pounding breakbeats and dirty dubstep, with a tasty bag of out of worldly skits thrown into the mix. This album feels like an experiment for the dutch trio, interfering in territories which are very divided in the dance music community.

At times, the record feels stronger, powerful and evocative, but at others, it lacks all of this.

This is evident towards the end of the album, where we find ourselves being sent on a musical rollercoaster of ups and downs. For example, both Diplodocus and Paper Doll grow from strength to strength as they parade through, but the mashed, clumsy first few seconds of Dystopia kills any hope of the same brilliance. Although, Sunhammer (Featuring Amon Tobin) regains listeners interest, using atmospheric, interesting samples to puncture through anything left by the previous monstrosity of Dystopia. We are then rocketed into the insane Stigma which kicks any sense of previous negativity out of you and leaves with an overwhelming sense of power.

The album finishes with Square Foot, a track confused about where it is, one half slow groove ambient, the other confused dubstep, a poor ending I feel.

The highest point of the album without a doubt has to be My World (Featuring Giovanca), a track crafted perfectly to take the listener on a journey of elusive breakdowns and vocal harmony.

Overall I think Noisia are trying to be something they’re not, heading away from their roots into unknown territory, making a measly attempt to broaden their audience. Although there are some very strong tracks, overall it leaves me feeling underwhelmed; exhausted, making it a real effort to listen to.

5/10