Brazilian techno producer Gui Boratto has spent much of the preceding decade arriving at a pretty enviable position, one where he’s simultaneously able to interact with the mainstream pop world via acclaimed remixes for the likes of The Pet Shop Boys and Goldfrapp whilst also maintaining huge levels of respect amongst the techno underground and leftfield electronic scenes. If anything, this third album, aptly titled ‘III’ acts a perfect demonstration of just how he’s managed to maintain the aforementioned artistic balance. While the eleven tracks collected here showcase Boratto’s feted production skills and provide a sense of visceral motion that’s likely to provide plenty of fuel for the early club hours, there’s a sense of emotional immediacy almost constantly at work here, fed by subtle pop hooks that bear ghostly traces of New Order-esque melancholy as much as they do the more familiar Chicago / Detroit influences.
It’s a quality that’s palpably present in lush, melancholic texture-rich offerings such as the gorgeous ‘The Third’, which evokes atmospheres of sunset falling across desert plains as much as it does a streamlined night-drive through a neon-lit Berlin, and ‘Striker’, which even sees a Peter Hook meets Echo & The Bunnymen bassline locking into place amidst the crisp pressurised snares, ghostly treated New Wave vocals and moody throbbing bass synths, in an offering that leans towards Trentemoller’s brooding widescreen explorations. Elsewhere, ‘The Drill’ offers up one of this album’s more muscular moments as harsh distorted snares flicker against a dark throbbing backdrop of EBM-electro centred bass synths and corrosive-sounding noise bursts tear like molten acid into the mix, before ‘This Is Not The End’ closes proceedings with the sort of melancholy-strewn pop crossover The Chemical Brothers probably dream about crafting, as a trailing synth pulse and Luciana Villanova’s gentle vocals caress a backdrop of jangling guitar chords and stripped-down 4/4 rhythms. In many senses what Boratto’s crafted here is a techno-centred record that isn’t limited just to those who listen to techno / house, but also manages to slot in as easily one of the best dance-based albums I’ve heard during 2011.
Chris Downton
