Soom T's "Bullets Over Babylon" Album: Tribute to Resistance

HouseofReggae.de

 

Dubstep, Reggaeton and Electronique Gives Voice to Culture

Soom T (Sumati Bhardwaj) is an Indo-Scot from Glasgow who is known for her musical melange of DubStep, Hip Hop, Electronique, Reggae and Reggaeton. She's created her own distinctive style and genre to accompany her eclectic, poetic, socio-political lyrics and versatile vocals. She also adds in other modern and world influences with her music. The genre is called several different names and hard to reduce to one label, but one that fits accurately is “Digital Laptop Reggae.”

Even more unique about her lyrics and sound are all the other musical acts she has collaborated with. Her writing, producing, recording and worldwide touring schedule is constant and rigorous and her global fan base is already huge and still growing. She is probably one of the hardest working women in the music industry in Europe and has produced more than 50 releases since 1999. She currently is signed to Renegade Masters.

MySpace.com

To get the music out, Soom T uses all the tools in the toolbox. She is online everywhere, with uploaded videos, sound bytes, photos and a presence on viral sites such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Spotify, Last.fm, Bandcamp, Soundcloud and more. Her upcoming recording, “Free as a Bird” is due to be released on November 13th, 2015.

“Bullets Over Babylon” was recorded as a collaboration and produced by Monkey Marc, released on April 20th, 2015. This album surprises with lush instrumentation and dedicated lyrics, multi-layered synth, keyboards and electronique. No two tracks sound the same:

1. “Aliens in Jars” -- driving rhythm, looped drums, electronique, rapped lyrics, special effects with the vocals, reverbed keyboards.
2. “Bullshit” -- world rhythms in the intro, rapped angry socio-political lyrics, lots of instrumentation, synth.
3. “Complex Simplicity” with MC Karma -- Far East sounding strings and chord progressions, MC Karma rapping lyrics, chorus done by Soom T, yearning and melodic vocals, world music sound, some vocal parts sound Middle Eastern. Another standout track.
4. “Drill”
5. “Boom”
6. “Slave” -- darkness, slow, minor keys, rhythmic, synth and special effects, jazzy vocals.
7. “Rebellion” with Combat Wombat -- rapped lyrics, electronica, mix of dubstep and reggaeton, layered vocal riffs.
8. “Under the Bubble” -- organ/keyboards intro and throughout, rapped and sung lyrics
9. “Sick of it All” -- spoken intro, rapped lyrics about corporatism and resistance, great special effects, vocals about the corporate culture.
10. “Storms Come” with Marina P and Solo Banton-- slow rapped reggae by Solo Banton, dancehall rhythms, Soom T’s lyrics are soft and beautiful used in the chorus and as a backdrop for Marina P’s soul voice in the verses. Outro with the sound of rain and thunder. Definitely a standout track! This writer’s favorite.

Review by Anita Stewart of Deep Green Resistance Florida, originally published at Rock at Night.