Italian born and UK-based electronic producer Alessio Natalizia last graced us a few months back with his latest album as Not Waving ‘Animals’ on Diagonal, and now Ecstatic offer up a vinyl re-release of his second album ‘Redacted’ which was originally released as a limited run of 100 cassette copies in 2013, and now goes for some reasonably steep prices on the secondhand market. Compared to the variant styles being explored on ‘Animals’ there’s a far more cohesive feel to the eight tracks collected here, with motorik and stripped down proto-techno influences particularly rearing their heads here.
Indeed, ‘Redacted 1’ almost suggests a more rhythmically driven take on one of John Carpenter’s icy dystopian scores as tense analogue synths and cycling bass tones pulse urgently against gliding drum machine rhythms and sampled background screaming, zapping filtered effects darting across the mix as icy melodic arpeggios begin to emerge during the second half. ‘Redacted 2’ gets more gritty and muscular as prowling bass sequences lock into place against thumping 4/4 kickdrums, the howling feedback trails in the background adding a vaguely psychedelic edge to the EBM-tinged heart that powers beneath, shortly before things die away into bursts of buzzing static.
Elsewhere, ‘Redacted 5’ takes things off on a wonky tech-house ride that sees loose metallic snares drifting in and out of focus against eerie icy synths and swelling ambient pads, the vaporous backing bleeding out into a wall of gauzy distortion as distant vocal samples drift through the mix. It’s closing track ‘Redacted 8’ though that easily offers up one of this album’s most sublime moment, its spacious rise and fall of cosmic sounding background sounds gradually coalescing amidst oscillating bass tones into a ocean of brooding ambience. It’s emblematic of the isolationist yet vast feel to much of the music here. ‘Redacted’ is as frequently dreamlike as it is disquieting.
