In 1994 Sonia Akow & Toby Edwards took the first two letters from each of their names and began a musical collaboration named SOTO. They learned how to spin all kinds of styles. Not long after, they started promoting "SOTO" parties that showcased early electronic music, hip hop, house, early drum & bass, techno and others. Now they are breakbeat artists signed to London's leading breakbeat label, Botchit and Scarper.

Sonia is assistant label manager at Botchit and Scarper and Emotif/Double Zero records working in A and R, and writing record reviews in the breaks & beats and drum & bass section of Breakin Point magazine and Out Of Hand magazine. Toby has been working at Headroom Studios alongside Zart (Nick Ashcroft), and has been responsible for engineering duties on the Mechanoise releases. He also writes music for television, film and websites, making him a real in-studio pro.

As if it weren't enough to limit themselves to that, they also play weekly slots on Space FM, Breaks FM radio station, and Pyrotechnic internet radio station. Of course they've got a long list from playing gigs out at Movement at Bar Rhumba, The Big Chill Festival, Chew The Fat at The Bug Bar, Cryonix, Bullet Proof (with Goldie & Grooverider).

Recently SOTO have been working hard in their own studio, producing their own tracks (and playing them out on dubplate to good reactions) and released their first track "Strung Out," on Botchit & Scarper's Urban Funk Breaks 2 in February 2001. Their second track "Hold On" is on Botchit Breaks 4 album with Amaziree who featured on T.Power's "Running." Their newest single "Monkey" was released on Botchit Breaks in October 2001.

New SOTO single "Monkey" out on Botchit Breaks!

SOTO's love of the broken beat comes full circle to spread the sound worldwide, most recently in Australia and the U.S. with the help of their label's escalating notoriety. Sonia herself promoted the Botchit and Scarper night at The Junction in London. It definitely can't have hurt them any to have been able to play alongside heavyweight breakbeaters such as B.L.I.M., Rennie Pilgrem and Uncouth Youth from The Mechanoise Sound System. Not to mention Hyper, Terminal Head, Dee-Kline, Zed Bias and DJ Food. That, and traveling the world to far-flung locales such as Canada, Berlin, Malaysia and Rome, and they'll soon be listed amongst the veterans that they look up to.

Click for EyePhunk audio: SOTO on Botchit Breaks 4

SOTO still incorporates many musical elements into their tracks due to their affinity for variety and musicality. And even though their new single "Monkey/Pigsy" may be tougher and more dancefloor orientated than previous tracks, it still retains those musical elements. When pressed, they also admit that the song-based structure of their tracks may come from an almost unconscious desire to have a beginning, middle and end, which they feel makes them whole and finite.

SOTO acknowledges that even though their sound is still developing, they always keep a strong sense of musicality and identity in the tracks in addition to maintaining a "firm dancefloor ethic." In the future they will contunue to grow, using their wide set of influences to propell them down different musical paths.
Aside from their producing their own tracks, they also DJ for dancers in the clubs, treating them to an ass-shaking time, full of diverse tracks, and even some older tunes from deep in the crate. So if you go to see SOTO in your local venue, expect to hear funky, groovy, melodic wreckers, with lots of energy and personality that give their sets "an identity that you can put your finger on." And if you come away feeling uplifted by those familiar tunes they throw in there, don't say we didn't warn you.