Soli-lo-kwe

I have no idea what these guys play. I doubt if even they do. It's definitely electronic though, mixed liberally with rock/metal influences. I chanced upon the word "electrofusion" being used for this somewhere, so I'll go with electrofusion.

Once again, I don't know who the members of this band are. I know for sure that Shiv plays bass for them. But that's all. They have a guitarist and a guy on the keyboards. And a laptop. But that's what's really cool about them. It's electronic, but it's mostly sounds that they play live. I think that's what drew me to the band first. 

Since I don't know who the band members are, I'll just put up the photo of their logo. Which I must add is pretty cool. I didn't get it at first, so don't beat yourself up about it.

Hint: It's code.

According to their homepage, "Solilokwe has 3 finished tracks and about half a dozen unfinished ideas". Solilokwe also artwork for all of these three finished tracks. I've taken the liberty of including this artwork in my review without any prior permission whatsoever. 

Since the whole band is pretty much an enigma, and not much is known about them except these three songs, we'll jump right in.

1.) Pshyce

Soundcloud is refusing to give me the code to embed the song on my blog, so just listen to the song here. The typo in the name is on purpose. Starts with an interesting guitar riff, and is joined soon by a very heavy bass line. Programmed drums. Wanders aimlessly like this for the first half. Then gets down to serious business around 1:25. A little bit of metal riffing following this. Good aggressive, heavy electronic music. I don't think I've ever heard anything like this. 

2.) Saadhu
 Saadhu by Solilokwe 

Starts with a shell cry, and a bass line. The bass is heavy again. Setting the atmosphere. I think it's the bass that makes the music of Soli-lo-kwe so dark. Makes it a lot more brutal. This song gets groovy right from 0:45, no wandering aimlessly setting moods here. Riffage is groovy, straightforward. Like a rock intro copy-pasted into an electronica setting. Drumming is insanely good. Perfectly programmed. The song itself is like a collection of great riffs set to bleak electronic setting. Great stuff

3. See The People
 Seethepeople mix by Solilokwe 

Starts with some upbeat drumming. This is  noticeably less dark in the beginning, but the electronic sounds that join in are a little bit unsettling. All elements are stripped away very suddenly at 1:24 to leave just one to-and-fro sound that says shit's about to get real. Bass-tapping follows immediately afterward. Whodathunkit. Tapping in an electronic song. Calms down immediately after the bass tapping. Stays calm till the end. This song is much less bleak and dark as compared to the other two. Still wouldn't call it fresh though. It's stuck a little bit in the middle. 

I absolutely love their recorded material, but unfortunately when I saw them live at Italia recently, their live sound didn't sound up to it. This is partially the venue's fault too, because the inconvenient architecture of the building had forced me to stand in a horizontal line from the band, allowing me to only watch from the side, this arrangement also resulted in substantially lowered sound quality. However, I think the band itself is still in the process of figuring out their live sound. It's not quite as good as their recorded sound. They sounded more like an amateur band trying to cover Solilokwe. Hopefully they'll iron their issues out. I'd love to see them again when they do. Promises to be a killer show.

PS - It would be fun if they picked up a drummer to play live too. Somehow electronically programmed drums don't have the same feel.

Right then, general links:

Homepage: http://solilokwe.com/

Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/solilokwe