Dimitri Papadimitriou calls himself aloof, or Aluf, but the Sydney via Athens producer is neither high nor mighty. His hand-written CD-R, complete with post-it note attached to the jewel case, arrived at Cyclic Defrost several weeks ago. I emailed him to find out more, and he exclaimed, “At last! Someone who’ interested in my music! Seriously, you’re only the third person who’ shown any genuine interest for my tracks.â€
Papadimitriou, 23, produced the demo last year while finishing off a biology degree at Macquarie University, Sydney. Using a laptop and ipod earphones – no high-end studio here – the young producer nevertheless crafted five distinctive pieces of music. I was the third to get in touch; the first two people to contact Papadimitriou were San Francisco’ Seth Horvitz (Sutekh) and Jeff Milligan of Montreal-based Revolver Records. And although neither felt the demo was ready for vinyl release, both asked for properly mastered tracks. That should give you an idea what’s on offer here.
With five fascinating tracks spread over just 24 minutes tuning out is not an option. Jagged deep house/glitch (‘Livemoog’) is followed by “Pagoda,’ which strips away the groove, initially, eventually reappearing as musique concrete-informed minimal techno. Swinging in and out of focus, the piano on “Paradigm D’Unurkey’ is a Doppler shift that changes the way you hear the oddly arrhythmic bleeps and clicks – there’ a groove here, it’s just operating on a three-dimensional rather than linear plane.
Whether it’s drone (‘Marinated Rizlas’) or jerky techno (‘Asif’), or something that’s all of the above, this is a strong first release, especially for a demo. But there’s also a self-effacing reservedness to the music that is endearing. He’s working night shifts in Greece to pay for new equipment and a tight mastering job from Twerk (Merck, Context), but Papadimitriou is working on a new CD and plans to be back in Sydney by late 2007.
