Urbi Et Orbi 4 comes fourteen years after the first compilation of the series and it has followed in the footsteps of its siblings. As in previous collections, a raft of styles occupies this 12”—everything from deep ambience and icy electro to acid deviance.
From deep ambience and icy electro to acid deviance
2020 has been a trying year. Perhaps an understatement, but there you go. COVID-19 has impacted on our lives in unprecedented ways, our livelihoods, our friends, our family. The pandemic has had an enormous effect on culture, especially music. Clubs have closed their doors, some forever. Record shops are struggling under financial strains and intermittent restrictions. Labels are left with spiralling uncertainty as to their very futures.
Despite this bleak outlook, there are pin-pricks of light piercing the gloom. Music is still being made and fresh vinyl releases are still being pressed. A recent audio reason to rejoice is just landing in shops and marks MinimalRome’s welcome return to shelves, Urbi Et Orbi 4.
The machinists of MinimalRome have been busy while their capital was in lockdown, beavering away at their banks of equipment while contracting likeminded knob jerkers to their cause, as well as this six tracker. Flying the home flag we have Teslasonic (Gianluca Bertasi) and Heinrich Dressel (Valerio Lombardozzi). Bertasi, still fresh from his recent appearance on Bar Records, opens with the fiery and frigid funk of “Cyber Flow.” Raw and distorted chords are further cooled by sharp beats and cold computer chords. Lombardozzi counters these arctic blasts with the warming autumnal subtlety of “Ombre Et Lumiere.” Plant43 finds a balance between these two fronts with the vast crystalline expanse of “Breaks the Surface.” A disperse melody tiptoes through the thin spinneys of drums with broad gusts of bass unsettling the tranquillity.
The tone changes immediately on the flip with Cosmic Force taking the helm. Percussive patterns dare to break ranks as the dutchman compresses a squalid acid line down to a stark syrup. Toms rumble and pop with industrial menace dancing with mutant electro-funk for “Deny Evil’s Existence.” A daringly brilliant piece. Another stalwart of all-things acidic follows, the Austrian duo and Trust mainstays Microthol. Their offering, “More Detections” is a notably off-kilter piece, stumbling snares attempt to find stability through a haze of ghosting samples and aquatic submersion. The finale comes from a completely different place. Returning from an appearance on Trame Due, Sonobe delivers the sumptuous elegance of “Another Frame.” Esoteric and fragile, the track shimmers on cascading notes before melting away all too quickly.
Urbi Et Orbi 4 comes fourteen years after the first compilation of the series and it has followed in the footsteps of its siblings. As in previous collections, a raft of styles occupies this 12”—everything from deep ambience and icy electro to acid deviance. There are tracks that challenge the listener on each side, there are also soothing refrains that offer space for reflection. A perfect expression of a label that has grown over almost two decades, that has faced trials and tribulations and has again, and again, overcome them and shone.
Urbi Et Orbi 4 is available on MinimalRome. [Website]
