As a roaming member of Redneck Manifesto, Neil O’Connor dips into propulsive, instrumental alt-rock now and again, but there’s a strong sense that Somadrone and the music created under that moniker is his safe harbour.
Previous albums Depth of Field and The First Wave were greeted with enthusiastic strokes of the chin, and we can see Oracle being on the receiving end of similar appraisals, even though it's a noticeable recalibration of O'Connor's creative approaches.
Tracks such as Caustic City and the title tune take a sparser route to their logical conclusions, and while the vocals aren't always the ideal accompaniment, there is much pleasure to be gained from O'Connor's forays into disco, house and musique concrete.
Overall, it amounts to a subtle triumph of technique and talent.
