Trame Due is far from a collection of straight up cuts of electro or red blooded techno, instead this latest compilation from Minimal Rome journeys down a more thought-provoking line. Across two generously proportioned LPs, a spread cerebral sonic expressions are etched with varying levels of abstraction.
Time. It slips by. Nowhere can the axiom be more truth filled than trying to keep up to date with record labels. I could swear that Minimal Rome had just put out Teslasonic’s excellent Electrical Oscillator Activity, but it appears the clock is playing tricks on me as that hit stores some twenty four months ago. For those in need of a fix of machine funk, fear not as some vinyl mana is fresh from the pressing plants.
The seventeen track, double vinyl, release brings together veterans, label stalwarts and new names. Two pillars of Minimal Rome, Heinrich Dressel and Teslasonic, are present alongside past contributors such as C-34, David Kristian and Polysick. The latter opens the compilation with the aquatic abstraction of “Laguna.” The harsh house lines of “Witness” have melted away with a much calmer and softer side on show. Teslasonic and Heinrich Dressel also follow a more ambient line, “Conscious Machine” being a piece of absorbing atmospherics with “Der Greifer” employing elements of the silver screen for a dreamy synthesizer score. Established talent is well represented. Danny Wolfers aka Legowelt revives one of his lost monikers, Phalangius, to produce the throbbing amiga epic of “Elite Galaxy.” Fellow Dutchman Ian Martin is another contributor, “Roark” being a work of expansive modular synthesis, a gas giant bellowing against the void.
It soon becomes apparent that Trame Due is a much more abstract excursion than previous Minimal Rome compilation. Artists who are known for delving into the darker side of machine music, Lamanna for example, become misty eyed romantics on this album, Lamanna teams up with Breaking Wood for the soulful saxophone sounds of “Tristesse.” Even Mannequin boss Alessandro Adriani, so well known for his EBM body blows, thaws with the stunningly sleek and sheer cascading chords of “Blood Runs Down.”
Lesser known musicians offer another perspective on this pack collection. Lo-Lo, who stood out with the superb “Olimpiadi 3211.6.” on Urbi Et Orbi III, delivers an arcing track of space symphonics of “Ubik.” Nursiø is another near unknown entity, arriving with a cracking piece of late night horror disco in the form of “Murder on Paestrum St.” The most unsettling work is left until the end. Nine minutes of uneasy ambience is brought care of Cassandra, “Bran Creak Hotel” closing in haunting form.
Trame Due is far from a collection of straight up cuts of electro or red blooded techno, instead this latest compilation from Minimal Rome journeys down a more thought-provoking line. Across two generously proportioned LPs, a spread cerebral sonic expressions are etched with varying levels of abstraction. My advice, let the needle drop and immerse yourself in an album that is both absorbing and daring.
Trame Due is available on Minimal Rome. [Clone]
