Our obsession with Marc Soucy grows with every listen, so when we had the chance to preview his latest release, The Tong, we couldn’t wait to explore the opus and share our experience. The sonic voyage through tension, fear, and cerebral introspection, captures the drama of real events with a masterful blend of orchestral and electronic elements.
As the sixth instalment in his STIR series, The Tong opens with a boundless, dimensional synthscape, instantly immersing us in an atmosphere that feels otherworldly yet deeply grounded. Brightness flickers at the edges of the sound, as dramatic risers and nuanced tech-house production begin to take shape, drawing you into a high-octane tempo shift that heightens the tension, making you feel as if you’re on the cusp of something transformative.
The cerebral nature of this track is reminiscent of the intricate, layered compositions found in cinematic scores, particularly those suited to a film like Inception, where reality and dreamscapes collide. Soucy creates a world where sonic textures shift unpredictably, keeping you on edge. The astral female vocals, woven into this intricate sound design, offer a transcendent quality, as if they’re leading the listener across an ethereal plane. It’s in these moments of vocal and synth interplay that the track becomes almost meditative, despite its underlying intensity.
Orchestral hits introduce further dynamism, injecting a filmic quality that’s at once dramatic and suspenseful, underscoring Soucy’s knack for storytelling through music. The use of silence midway through the piece becomes a powerful compositional tool. In the absence of sound, anticipation builds, with ancestral vocal tones intertwining effortlessly with percussive elements and subtle synths. This deliberate pause acts as a reflective moment before a glorious sonic rebuild ensues, sending the listener toward a cerebral finale that feels like an ascension into an alternate dimension. Eastern string elements, haunting and otherworldly, amplify this feeling of transcendence, pulling the listener further into Soucy’s meticulously crafted universe.
In The Tong, Soucy explores extremes – both musically and emotionally. As he explains, this piece leans heavily on musical opposites to achieve his evolving trademark style. The contrast between tension and silence, terror and calm, electronic and orchestral, creates a soundscape that feels as unsettling as it is captivating. More than ever, this track seems to channel real fear, as Soucy draws on actual events from 1991 Boston’s Chinatown – a gang-related shooting that shocked the community before mass shootings became tragically familiar in American news. This narrative adds another layer of depth to the already intense listening experience.
Soucy’s commitment to crafting music that evokes emotions, constructs stories, and engages the imagination is evident in The Tong. His deft blending of orchestral and electronic elements creates a hybrid sound that is uniquely his own, borrowing from the many genres he’s worked in throughout his career. The result is a piece that feels deeply cinematic, a tension-filled epic that would feel right at home in a dark, psychological thriller or sci-fi epic.
Marc Soucy’s ability to merge historical events with surreal, sonic landscapes makes him an artist whose work continually pushes boundaries. In The Tong, we not only hear music but are transported to an emotional and psychological space where tension, terror, and wonder collide.