artist: Soma country of origin: Australia style(s): Cinematic, dub, techno, ethno ambient essential releases: Hollow Earth (1994, Extreme) The Inner Cinema (1996, Extreme)

Sorry Sydney, but Melbourne is the city where Australia's richest veins of ambient and electronica can be found, and Soma has made some of the finest. This Australian duo of Pieter Bourke (whose credits include session work with Dead Can Dance and Lisa Gerrard) and the prolific David Thrussell have achieved something relatively rare: highly eclectic, experimental electronica with an industrial feel that, rather than distancing the listener with its weirdness and dissonance, is almost immediately inviting.

This is instrumental music with depth and detail which reveals more with each successive listen, combining elements as wildly diverse as film music ala Ennio Morricone, wailing Mid-Eastern melodies, funky basslines, soupy hip hop beats, throbbing techno, Indian tabla drums and new age prettiness. The surreal meeting of such disparate elements sounds a little more refined on The Inner Cinema than on Hollow Earth, but both albums work quite brilliantly. If you've ever found the sheer eclecticism of much 90's electronica daunting, Soma makes it sound almost easy without sacrificing intelligence or trivialising the sources.

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