Leonardo Martelli

Menti Singole Vol.2

Image of Leonardo Martelli - Menti Singole Vol.2
Record Label
Antinote

About this item

Two years after Leonardo Martelli made his debut with the retro-futurist four tracker 'Menti Signole', he returns to Antinote with Volume 2, an update of that initial electronic vision. Sparse, clear-cut and slightly nerve-racking, "Micaella" opens the record with the precision of a neurosurgeon. The song can be seen in many ways as a good introduction to the music of the Italian musician – past and probably future. Ethereal string machines balance the nagging acid leitmotiv, dancing cheek to cheek above a restless drum pattern. "Alice" is another triumph of opposition, pairing joyous melodies and exuberant electo rhythms over a melancholic vocal sample and bittersweet pads. On "Laura" - just like with "Alice" - Martelli keeps on playing with the potential of abstraction of rap samples, lending the glassy melodies and snapping beat a freestyle feel. "Sofia" gives a particularly striking example of this weird game he likes to play with language as Biggie Smalls’ words get progressively eviscerated from their meaning. Backed by bare percussive samples (a numerical metronome, copyright-free digital ersatz of percussions, strange string pluck) "Sofia" depicts despair in a post-industrial world, where everything has lost any sense of materiality. Disarmingly simple, Menti Singole Vol.2 offers electronic mourning music at its most elegant.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Antinote continue to push the boundaries of the current electronic scene with another genre blurring release from Leonardo Martelli. Avant garde instrumentation, abstract composition and a decidedly melancholic tone twist the electro, techno and freestyle in strange new directions.

TRACK LISTING

1. Micaela
2. Alice
3. Laura
4. Sofia 

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