The ill-ec-tro-nic

Despite being going since 2008, the Prologue label only came to my attention recently. The first release to make me take note, was Iori's Unknown Place EP as I had recently come across his work on Galaxy, the debut release on the Phonica White series. Across both of these releases, Iori has made his agenda pretty clear with a heavy focus on post Basic Channel dub techno and his sound palette is warm, deep and very immersive. My one criticism of his work is that his tracks have a tendency to take hypnotic minimalism a little too far and moving towards a more verse-chorus-verse type structure rather than the minimal pattern evolution he seems to favour, would, in my mind at least, elevate his work to the next level.

Iori - Magnetic // Prologue buy

Cio D'or is a more established name, having put out a string of 12s over the last 5 or so years. Die Faser is her debut album and puts together a collection of tracks linked largely by a common theme of experimentation with reverb and delay. The overall result is pleasing, reminding me in parts of Pantha Du Prince's work albeit with a more minimal dancefloor edge. Whether it hangs together that well as an album is something that I'm not too sure of as the danceflooor focus of many of the tracks gives an overall feel more akin to a doublepack 12" release although as this has come out in digital format only I guess this is something a little hard to achieve! For the digital jocks out there though, this minor quibble of mine isn't going to make much difference as the key thing here is that there's plenty of tasty cuts to weave into your sets.

Cio D'or - Brokat // Prologue buy

Donato Dozzy has been causing quite a stir on the blogosphere, not least as the mighty mnml ssgs has put him on a pedestal as one of the best DJs in the world right now. Having checked out some of his online mixes as well as having seen him play at Bleep 43 last year, it's pretty clear that anyone with a penchant for deep, thoughtful electronics is going to take great pleasure from checking out this guy's work behind the decks. He's also got a healthy production history under his belt and I'm a little ashamed to say that I'm not too familiar with this side of his work. On the In Vaders EP, Dozzy teams up with Dino Sabatini to deliver a pair of deep techno cuts that are complemented by an additional track from Sabatini and chums in their Modern Heads guise. The title track is definitely the dancefloor killer here with a rolling percussive groove and skittery effects providing a platform for the arcade-style bleeps that no doubt provide the inspiration for the title. Nocturnal is a much more sedate affair based on Sähkö style minimalism perfect for headphone listening and Mooger mixes thick ambience with tough Berghainesque percussion to deliver a slowly-evolving tool filled with subtle twists and turns to keep your ears pricked up.

Donato Dozzy & Dino Sabatini - In Vaders // Prologue

The In Vaders EP is scehduled for release on 19th Feb - check out a full preview here.

Labels: Cio D'or, Dino Sabatini, Donato Dozzy, Iori, Modern Heads, Prologue