The Where We Met team are not newcomers to the game. Piazza has been addicted to electronics for years now and he adds that “Leo and Omar are two experienced artists and have been together as Re-UP for almost 20 years.” This knowledge, this experience, is plain to hear in the choices the trio have made, it can be heard in the artists that have been selected for the first fledgling steps as a new imprint and the success that Where We Met are already enjoying through the sheer quality of output. Cracking music can come from the most unlikely of sources, even Venice. Lesson re-learned.
Some cities seem to lend themselves to electronic music. Basements. Dead land. Forgotten spaces. Lost properties. Other towns are quite the opposite. Strict controls on building purposes. Dwindling local community. Tourism. Venice would fall into this second category. Tight controls on buildings, Airbnb eating up reasonable flats and being holiday Mecca mean the northern Italian city has little machine music, little but peer below the water line and you will hear something worth listening to.
Where We Met wasn’t founded amongst the souvenirs and $3,000 steak dinners of Piazza San Marco, it was established by three friends living a stone’s throw away. The label was set up in 2016 by “the minds of Riccardo Piazza, Alberto Leonardi and Omar Mazzon” notes co-creator Piazza. The partnership are also a Dj octopus, or maybe ant, morphing into a “six arm back to back” entity known “as WWM.” Leonardi adds that the imprint is a “perfect mirror of the guys behind it” with the central sound spreading “from house to techno, passing through electro, deep and IDM” and the main aim being to be “always unpredictable.”
WWM made a smart choice to get the ball rolling, enlisting a musician who has been the right notes from his first release on Common Dreams in 2015. Since then Simon Keat aka Reedale Rise has appeared on Frustrated Funk and has recently had an album released on the rebooted KONDI. For the Venetians the Liverpudlian is substituting some of his colder cuts for more autumnal tones. The title piece, “Broken Land,” is big and bold. Breaks and shifts characterize this opener with Keat adopting cracked 90s rhythm patterns and neon shades to lift the entire outing. “Hypersleep” is a more understated affair. Muted blips, bleeps and clicks are shrouded in soaring strings for a warm techno encounter. The gamut of this British artist’s abilities are on full display, “Plasma Potential” taking on the grooving keys and rusty claps of a modern Chicago anthem. The closer adheres best to what Reedale Rise has become known for, electro. “Moroz.”
Since then WWM has grown by another three releases. Two of these have been compilations, Future Retro Vol 1. and Vol.2 which give “a more precise definition of the boundaries in which the label will stay.” Musicians of burgeoning talent have been chosen alongside more established names to produce these collections. Names like Derek Carr, Mihail P, Rob Belleville, 214 and Stu Crosbie mingle with the likes of M.A.D. and M_Step. Alongside this desire to gather favorites, the Venice boys are also striving to unearth original talent.
Tutti Tranne Micro.Solchi EP has just hit shops and is the debut 12” of two young Italian machine men, Matteo Volpato and Paolo Mosca better known as Micro.Solchi. A quartet of tracks are the offering with the squelching off-kilter funk of “45345” opening. It soon becomes clear that this duo are not willing to stick to the norms and structures, instead they bend expectations and play with what has gone before. “Microbreak” is a good example of this. The track is stripped back yet brimming with life. Drums rumble and roll as keys slice against a backdrop of swimming synthlines. “Disjointed” is a similarly independent track. Meandering somewhere between house and techno, Micro.Solchi explore subtle tones and brasher colors in a work of disparate elements. A colder breeze arrives with the electrofunk of “Your Energy.” Broad basslines are interspersed by steely snares and tumbling notes for a superbly engaging and imaginative closer.
The Where We Met team are not newcomers to the game. Piazza has been addicted to electronics for years now and he adds that “Leo and Omar are two experienced artists and have been together as Re-UP for almost 20 years.” This knowledge, this experience, is plain to hear in the choices the trio have made, it can be heard in the artists that have been selected for the first fledgling steps as a new imprint and the success that Where We Met are already enjoying through the sheer quality of output. Cracking music can come from the most unlikely of sources, even Venice. Lesson re-learned.
Visit Where We Met on Facebook or Soundcloud.
