SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 10/12/05
Bruce Elder
Since Decoder Ring won the Australian Film Institute award for best original music score and an IF award for best soundtrack for the 2004 movie Somersault, they have been confronted with the challenge of "Where do we go from here?"

The answer, as their third album demonstrates, is to push beyond their already adventurous boundaries while providing more of the gorgeous same.

Australia has no great tradition of experimental electronic music so Decoder ring's imaginative live light shows, explorations in electronics and dance rhythms, adventures in improvisation (shades of Tangerine Dream in the 1970s) and their ability to create extraordinarily beautiful soundscapes (shades of Brian Eno) have had to find new audiences prepared to be challenged and amazed. At times they sit on the pulsating edge of electro dance (Escape Pod and the mesmerising 451), at other times they seem like an '80s pop band (Out Of Range), early Pink Floyd (Traffic) and a sublime cross between Eno and Neu (Remainie).

Opening track Jets starts things on a gliding indie-pop trajectory, with colourful jangling guitar chords that call to mind early period New Order or Galaxie 500 rippling their way over phasing New Wave synths and clattering live drums as vocal Lenka's (who joined the band circa Somersault is now a firmly-installed full-time band member) delicate breathy intonations slide over the synthetic-edged rhythms in some mid-point between Broadcast's Trish Keenan and Slowdive. Serac takes things down into glacial instrumental beauty that calls to mind Somersault's ambient orchestral wash, with melancholy stretched-out cello chords making their way effortlessly over an icily precise backing of slow drum loops and twinkling synths, before Escape Pod locks things down into clicking electro-house rhythms, some choppy delayed guitar riffs that carry a hint of The Edge circa Unforgettable Fire spiralling around the beats as things suddenly drop down into a delicate yet sinister breakdown of eerie chiming tones and looming bass.

Traffic features Art Of Fighting's Ollie Browne on vocals, his world-weary sounding tones floating through a backdrop of gently plucked acoustic guitars and delayed-out fretboard howls that call to mind Bends-era Radiohead, ambient synth drones lurking just slightly out of view as the guitars swell up beneath Browne's epic chorus, while the downright sinister 451 places a punk-funk bassline below some dark electro synths that carry more than a hint of EBM-industrial stomp, the buzzing arpeggios accelerating towards the redline as snare buildups and dark distorted guitars scream their way through the mix. To Die reintroduces Lenka's rich multitracked vocal harmonies over a swooning backdrop of sweeping orchestral textures, jangling indie guitar riffs and live drums in a moment that recalls mid-nineties 4AD act Lush's widescreen pop, before closing title track Fractions takes things out on a shimmering electro-pop tangent, jangling guitar chords intertwining themselves around distorted rock riffs and some oddly disco-tinged synth sequences as Lenka's breathy tones glide effortlessly over the complex rhythms below.

A stunning second album from Decoder Ring that shows the six-piece outfit continuing to shift their music towards a more lush expansive and flowing incarnation that carries hints of the mechanistic rhythms of Krautrock acts such as Can and Neu! as much as it does soft-focus echoes of the early / mid-nineties 'shoegazer' sound typified by the likes of Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine and the 4AD label roster. If you were captivated by the deep sensous blend of sonic textures and eerie-yet-beautiful female vocals Decoder Ring brought to bear on their work for the Somersault score, Fractions promises to take you on a seriously engrossing journey with plenty of emotionally poignant crescendos along the way. One of the best releases I've heard this year, easy.

http://www.inthemix.com.au/reviews/music/23095/

LIMELIGHT
Lee Tran
The soundtrack draws on this crisp, icy landscape to create striking, sublime songs as colourshot and pristine as snow crystals...an elegant and moving soundtrack that is one of the best Australian albums this year...Exquisite


ROLLING STONE
****
Sydney band decoder ring have composed a stunning soundtrack to Cate Shortlands's movie, Somersault. Shot in Jindaybine, the movie was received well at the Cannes film festival this year, earning a standing ovation and picking up international distribution deals. Decoder Ring, in retrospect are an obvious choice to score an arty Australian film given the cinematic breath of their existing mostly instrumental explorations into post rock and electronica the band have painstakingly crafted a specious and moody atmosphere walking the line between interesting music and unobtrusive ambience. Gentle piano lines intersect with delicate guitar notes, while vibraphones shimmer at the edges. They've found a vocalist known only as Lenka whose breathy strangely haunting Bjork-style voice that fits the title track and Music Box both fragile with beautiful sounds and precision percussion perfectly.

NOTION
****

FASTER LOUDER
Decoder Ring seems to have truly crystallised a sound, focused it, finessed it and channelled it into something rather wonderful. Emotive and mesmerising compositions segue into, well, more emotive and mesmerising compositions. But it's all an effortless listen.There's a warmth throughout Somersault, as if the brief was to score a soundtrack reminiscent of being wrapped up in clouds. This is a Decoder Ring confident yet completely at ease with itself.

ATTITUDE
****

IN THE MIX
8/10
Decoder Ring's self-titled debut album from 2002 was a stunningly assured piece of work that masterfully showcased the band's versatility and breadth of musical knowledge. When commissioned by Shortland for this score, the band used a working cut of the film as their starting point...Without doubt, this level of interaction with the filmmakers has resulted in the band working more like a composer than a rock band rubber-stamping old hits for a soundtrack. Decoder Ring has once again proven their versatility by adapting their sound to the film. Not to be played on a bright and sunny day, Somersault could be the soundtrack to those emotionally drenched moments.


SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 22/02/03
Bernard Zuel
The debut album from local outfit is a hugely impressive album that straddles electronica, rock, arthouse and deancefloor, and does it not just with bravado but finesse. Decoder Ring's elements are rich; rhythm patterns aren't merely from drum machines but tuned and untuned percussion; keyboards strech from pulsing Kraftwerk-like modes to squelchy house to sonic blasts and tinkling pianos; guitars and electric bass can be quite melodic or add a vibrant, assertive rock tone that can take material into tough territory. Vocals are rare but when they appear they merge into the soundscape rather than dominate. Decoder Ring share some territory with the art rock of such groups such as Tortoise and the interesting electronica coming out of Europe in the past five years, but there's definitely 70s krautrock in the background, too, particularly with the opening track Welcome Shoppers, where you see the strong dance moves and openness to disturbance of a Neu! or Can. Indeed in Colossus one of only two vocal tracks, the disturbance becomes quite forceful, more akin to say paranoid trip hopper Tricky playing with Sonic Youth.

LUCKY October 2002
G.H.
Every now and again a disk finds it's way into the Lucky office that absolutely blows us all away, Decoder Ring is just that sort of disc. These six guys from Sydney town have pieced together one of the most seamless and powerfully uplifting instrumental offerings we've heard from a local in years. Vocals would be wasted on music that communicates this articulately, as moods shift from introspective to joyously anthemic all in the one motion. Sprawling soundscapes that utilise sounds so engaging that you just can't help feeling transported to a higher plane of higher plane of sonic bliss. I can only begin to imagine what these guys must be like live. Very fuckin' nice!

DB magazine
We Liked It And You Will Too
Sasha Pazeski
Debut albums can be a bit of a hit and miss affair. A band in its infancy often falls prey to all manner of generalizations and categorizing and are often prone to releasing sub-standard debuts, which totally belie their capabilities. I'm sure those listening to Pablo Honey for the first time would never have imagined Radiohead going on and recording an album as significant as OK Computer. Thankfully Decoder Ring have done the opposite... Combining elements from pop, rock, dance, electronica and a multitude of other styles makes it impossible to categorise exactly what Decoder Ring are. The Sydney five piece possess that special talent of building on musical ideas then moving on to something more interesting at precisely the moment the previous idea begins to verge on boredom. And they do it so bloody well, which makes for one very interesting and sonically beautiful album... moving blissfully through seven more tracks of elegance, rock, dance and more polyphonic synths than you could poke a stick at. With such an outstanding selection of songs, it's hard to pick out a favorite, but my money's on the oddly timed Mysterious Liquid. Hell, who am I kidding? They're all my favorites and every listen provides a little something more to like. So if you buy one Australian release this year, you'd be a fool if you passed this album up. Really. It's that good.

REVOLVER
Best Albums 2002
Mike Gee
Instrumental music is hard to pull off at the best of times but this outstanding debut is all class and maturity loaded with good ideas and smart arrangements. Massive potential

REDBACKROCK
Mark Fraser
Mind altering soundscapes just unfold so beautifully out of this one... the tripped out caress of Collapse Coming On...with its infectious loops and trickling warmth. No vox, but then, none needed. The Night Shift sets up its subtle electro bliss... a little more ravaging... before the floating cries of Jodie Phillis wander thru the mix, giving it an even more drilling personality. And a befitting dedication to The Triffids' David McComb it is too... Protein Express equally drills its way in with its squelched keys, daunting pockets and urgent siren like rhythmics... intense... penetrating... controlling, before the soft falling flakes of Snowstorm hit tranquility mode in the most inspiring and unobtrusive of ways... Huge wafting visuals swim out of the delicate guitars of Unswung before it winds up and tears around the dance floor in a semi-crazed stupor... and then winds it all back down again. Beautifully aquatic, swirling aural scenes that unravel, dance and romance their way into your realm with the slightest of ease. Magical!

THE CANBERRA TIMES May 10 2002
****
It's been a while since a debut, especially a mere EP has showed this much promise. Decoder Ring's smooth spacey instrumentals may remind you of groups like Air or Radiohead. But even with the presence of keyboards they are able to maintain a more organic texture similar to that of 70's era Pink Floyd. Though one track does contain vocals, Decoder Ring are unashamedly an instrumental outfit. Can't wait to hear the album.