Sohme, Being Made Like God, Asphalt Savannahs
Launderette Records
3142 Richmond St.
Philadelphia
Jan. 23, 2026
On Friday, the 'felt' temperature as reported by my phone at 8 p.m. outside of Launderette Records in Port Richmond was 16°F. The last thing on most people's minds was leaving the house, much less heading to North Philly to see a show. For those of us who did venture to Launderette to catch the three-band bill performing that January night, the shock of inescapable frigid air trapped the evening in a certain stillness, offering an apt background for a night of experimental electronic noise and ambient music. People in soft mittens, thick wool socks, and cushioned hoodies nestled around their heads provided a uniform cocoon for absorbing warmth and sound.
The hosts of this unique and well-curated event were the members of Outside Noise, a collective of four friends (Mike, Julia, Carrie and Kalen) who moved to Philly from Nashville just under two years ago. Outside Noise has a mission of emphasizing overlooked and underrepresented musicians. As their viewership has grown (on Instagram, last I looked, they had over 72K followers and rising) they are yearning to grow beyond social media reviews and to start plugging themselves into the Philly DIY scene as curators. This was the first show Outside Noise has thrown together, and it was arranged by Kalen, whose music interests often drift to the electronic and experimental.
Sohme, Being Made Like God, and Asphalt Savannahs on Friday.
The docket consisted of Sohme, Being Made Like God, and Asphalt Savannahs, each outfit consisting of a single performer, and each performer Philly-based. The solo performances built on the evening’s already intimate vibe. Sohme set the mood upfront. We heard distant birds reminiscent of early mornings, the slight sounds of moving water or maybe oars through waves, creaking floor boards, and burning wood. Over these warm soundscapes hovered a harmonious ambient drone. Most of this effect was achieved with an unusual electronic unit made by SOMA Laboratory called "TERRA.” TERRA, from above, looks similar to a slice of a tree trunk. The outer edges are smooth, wavy and organic, but still roughly circular in shape. The buttons and unit controls are placed in a manner that gives the user access to an ergonomic pattern, conforming to the shape of your hands. The unit itself visually suggests a split that the audience was hearing in real time between sounds reflective of the natural world and the electronic wiring that produced them. Sohme also played guitar improvisations, including with an EBow (a small handheld device placed on a string above the pickup that vibrates continuously). By moving the EBow slightly back and forth, he created singular quavers and scratches. Meanwhile, some of the pre-rigged sounds chosen on the TERRA unit were similar to a Hang drum or a handpan, adding to the delicate nature of the music. The whole scene was illuminated by a light red tone with bleary orange hues, projecting an occasional overdeveloped or burnt quality onto the reflective parts of the equipment.
As Being Made Like God was setting up, the red lighting turned into a more dominating, deeper and menacing color, remaining dark and static throughout their set. As the sounds started, the tone switched. As per the static and dark lighting, the sounds emitted were densely packed and low in register. Being Made Like God’s influences, compared to the other bands that played that night, might bend towards the genres of harsh boise or power electronics, but in place of a brash, screeching wall of sound they had a somewhat controlled, low, dense nature. It felt as though instead of delivering a full punch of feeling, they were holding it back slightly, letting us get closer to something more personal that needed to be worked through. This gave the performance a dark edge and established a particular nervous feeling within me while witnessing it. You can't see it all, but it’s there in the dark waiting. A device employed to further this effect, besides a nice reverb petal and looping system, was an old CB walkie talkie unit with a stretchy cord. The performer, instead of speaking or yelling into it, seemed to be breathing. At first I thought by the way it was held that it might be a ventilator. They explained to me after that they used it for "quiet screaming.” Intriguing stuff.
The last performance of the night was Asphalt Savannahs. The sound was complex, genre jumping and built on many beats. The performance cut like butter through a vast array of influences. At times, they sounded like OG house, glitch, screwed, ambient soundtrack, and even plundertronics or old school vaporwave à la Chuck Persons. Beats were spliced straight on top of rhythmic phrases, constantly moving them forward and contrasting them. They could easily do an experimental soundscape, but also just as easily perform at a dance night and get a crowd moving. Asphalt Savannahs themself had a gifted voice. In addition to their own original melodies, they sang samples from other songs, organically looping their voice into the mechanistic creativity of their performance. As they sang, the colors of the room changed dramatically towards a bright purple, pink and blue spectrum, dots and crescent moon shapes littering the walls and ending this special evening on celestial upswing. Attendees seemed energized, having eagerly followed the winding path the show had taken. Everyone stuck around lingering and talking before falling back into the cold march towards their homes.
