Since their appearance on the scene in 2003, Dutch super producers Noisia have been laying waste to raves all over the planet with their uncompromising sound. The trio of Nik Roos, Martijn van Sonderen and Thijs de Vlieger who hail from Groningen in the Netherlands quickly established themselves as leading lights within the darker realms of dnb with a string of successful releases on high profile labels including Virus, Renegade Hardware and Moving Shadow before they launched an onslaught upon the mainstream with their punishing dnb workout 'Facade' which surfaced on Andy Cs Ram Records then re-emerged a few months later as the crowds went crazy all over again for the VIP pressing.

Noisia cemented their position in the scene when they were recently voted best drum & bass artists on the popular download site Beatport,
As one of the most respected partnerships in the business, Noisia were quick to capitalise on their success by launching the label 'Vision' to serve as a vehicle for their hard hitting tech drum and bass. Vision was followed by two more imprints 'Division' and ‘Invisible’, which have allowed for a wider spectrum of output.

More success followed with praise being showered on the trio for their heavyweight collaborations with the likes of KRS1 and Foreign Beggars before they took the reins in producing Hadoukens latest LP. Showing that that they are unwilling to be be confined to innovations purely within music Noisia have recently developed their own video game, a sonically focussed shooter called infection which will be surfacing this month.  Now, however, at long last Noisia have finished work on their debut album and now Example Mag brings you the lowdown track by track...

Weighing at a respectable 19 tracks, Split The Atom is the sound of Noisia making the album they always wanted to make. The record is a showcase of their taste in all things electronic and they've thrown in pretty much everything from their musical kitchen. Poor analogies aside, It's a diverse offering and to some extent this will make or break it for listeners.

Purist dnb heads might be a little disappointed at the amount of traditional drum and bass on offer as the genres throughout the record. Noisia deftly switch styles but always demonstrate the trademark synth manipulation and drum programming we have come to expect, whether that’s applied to complex darkstep, downbeat electronica, pulsing breakbeat, french tinged electro, brooding dubstep or rolled out vocal drum & bass. It's a testament to the musical identity they have developed over time that they can turn their hand to so many different styles while retaining their distinct and immediately recognisable sound.

Starting off the proceedings is the familiar robotic stomp of ‘Machine Gun’, a track that surfaced recently as an EP and has been tearing up dance floors for some time. The mechanical beats and industrial screeches give way to the deeper jungle influenced break of 'My World'.

Ethereal vocals promise to transport you to a better place before stomach churning synth dives bring you hurtling back to earth. After a brief bpm transition in the adorably named 'Shitbox', the title track switches to breakbeat territory with a nod back to Radio 1 fave 'Gutterpump'. Next up is 'Thursday', a dnb roller with harmonised synths and big trance atmospherics that melt away to dubstep flavoured funk in 'Leakage'.

'Hand Gestures' is Noisia at their most minimal using beeps, percussive noises and a low sub rumble before 'Headknot' goes all jaunty and halftime. 'Red heat' bring us back to house-esque breaks before Londons Foreign Beggars are let loose over ‘Shellshocks’ pots n pans workout.

Another tasty future funk diversion later and the mighty ‘Alpha Centauri’ demonstrates some of the tastiest synth modulation you’ll hear for a long time. ‘Soul purge’ features the Beggars’ second 2nd performance on the record and is catchy and moody in equal measure. It’s been doing the rounds for quite a while now but ‘Diplodocus’ is still one of the best of the bunch. Its quirky off kilter rhythms bounce around like cars on a rickety fairground ride and threaten to send the dance seven shades of loopy every time it gets dropped.

‘Paper doll’ is a genuinely moving piece of music that is sadly over far too quickly, its fragile beauty brutally trampled from memory by the mechanical beats and growls of ‘Dystopia’. Next up is ‘Sunhammer’, a collab with Brazilian audio terrorist Amon Tobin.  The tune picks up where Tobin left of with his 'Foley Room' LP creeping in with eerie clanks and atmospherics before Noisia take over and tear you several new ones. It’s fair to say that this is a bit special but I strongly doubt your mum will have it on in the car.

Penultimate track, the already popular ‘Stigma’ is a lesson in techy rolling drum and bass, amazing, high energy dancefloor napalm which sadly despite some really nice sound leaves the closer ‘Square Feet’ sounding a bit wet.
    
With all of this packed into one release ‘Split The Atom’ really does have something for everyone. For this reason I doubt it will keep everyone happy all the time but then the best records never do. In recent years the lines have blurred between genres and music lovers’ tastes have broadened so there has probably never been a better time for this record. If your willing to listen there is some truly engaing material but as always with Noisia, it’s the sheer technical brilliance of their studio wizardry that will wow you the most.

Split the atom is intelligent, futuristic, and devastatingly heavy without losing its accessibility. There’s a lot on offer and while at times the record might border on self indulgent, based on this evidence maybe some of the other producers out there should follow suit.


Split the Atom will be on sale from April 5th
Play Infection as of April 8th via the official Noisia site.
You can check out all things Noisia @ http://www.noisia.nl