The premise is interesting, but I’m not sure I appreciate the affect it has had on the music. From the bio – “Two of Italy’s most formidable electrosonic programmers…were handpicked…to decode the encrypted archives of SISMI, the Italian Secret Service and bring to life these clandestine events onto a 12″ vinyl disc.”
I first listened to the music before reading the bio and can’t say I noticed anything so shrouded. With the knowledge, though, I can now hear that some of the background textures of first track, ‘Blackfriar’s Bridge’ are probably processed voice recordings. Composite Refuse use an Italian political scandal as their source, while Kobol Electronics utilise industrial espionage. The tracks do contain a sense of covert conspiracy reminiscent of classic Underground Resistance, heightened, no doubt, by the similar timbral quailities and production values. Ultimately, though, all this seems to merely obfuscate what is fairly direct music to my ears.
808 drum machines run at the heart and synth pulses are decidedly mid-80s, but both artists certainly know how to use the sounds to construct their music. Squarely in the mode of early techno practitioners such as Cybotron, these dance beats are from a time before disco’s ubiquitous four-to-the-floor kick and off-beat hats had taken their place of precedence over electro syncopation within techno. Both Composite Profuse and Kobol Electronics keep their kicks stuttering and their snares snapping, pulsing through the dark, minor key arpeggios and synth chords, though final track, ‘Code10′ almost delves into pop territory, perhaps like an instrumental New Order track from 1983.
This certainly isn’t ground-breaking music, but I don’t suppose that’s its real purpose. It is well crafted electro-techno which I’ve quite enjoyed and which certainly achieves the result of inspiring body movement.
Adrian Elmer
*
