for those rubberheads who consider somatic responses to be idm - thanks in part to their melodically brilliant 2002 album for hymen, touching the void - take heart: pounded mass stylistically name checks your idm and experimental electronic icons like aphex twin, squarepusher, and lee norris. somatic responses’ john healy and paul healy also have a message for these folks: rethink that tag. pounded mass is one acerbic noise assault after another, the kind that will make most fans of twee synth tunes soil themselves. “we've taken a harder stance for this lp, as the title suggests,” says john. “i think that we were categorized as idm for a bit, which we never really understood…so we've applied a few good measures of distortion, et cetera to this release. as far as concepts go, it's more of a ‘machines perceptive’ but with a very heavy dose of humor thrown in. there's much more of a mixed bag in this release, including some turntablism, pure ambient soundscapes, breakcore, hardcore, hip-hop.... and that's just in one song.” that one song, the tripadelic “bathrobe brawl v1,” infuses the psychotic scratching effervescence of dj spooky with breaks and bass worthy of a depth charge or dj shadow cut. one track later, on “go off,” the welsh brothers healy crank up the somatic responses style of electro-mechano ferocity that would otherwise plant pounded mass firmly in the realm of xanopticon or orphx. then there’s the aptly-titled “the day idm crawled up its own arse,” which john s