Cio D'Or: Kimono
Motoguzzi Records
Laurine Frost: Ghosts EP
Perspectiv records
There's not a whole lot of information available on Laurine Frost aside from the fact that she's issued tracks on Salto Recordings and Hadshot Haheizar, but this 12-inch Perspectiv debut clearly argues strongly in her favour. The strong opener, “Ulisses,” a light-speed mover powered by an amazingly tight battalion of clicks, snaps, and even tinkling bell accents, is matched by the B-side's eleven-minute “Amfora,” a buoyant, tripped-out excursion bolstered by an endlessly percolating cornucopia of percussive invention. Less frenetic is “Papillon,” a moody little thing that pulls the shades down for a brief spell of rest and recovery. Oddly, Ripperton's remix of “Papillon” appears before the original but we won't complain when the remake's minimal house groove is so seductively smooth. What starts out, however, as carefree, darkens when the brooding character of the original returns.
On the 12-inch Kimono, Cio D'Or makes her Motoguzzi Records debut with three tracks of deep techno. Her predilection for tiny, glissandi-like melodic elements gives her material a unique sonic character, as does her preference for the unassumingly slow and steady build. Tracks start innocently enough but end up in altogether different places. In the title cut, staccato patterns of tinkly noises and stuttering echoes, propelled by a lurching bass thud, slowly swell into a hypnotizing mass. Sprites and fireflies rapidly dart in multiple directions during “Fata Morgana” while an ebullient groove chugs forcefully down below, while “Psst!” grounds strums and blips with a dungeon-deep groove that Cio D'Or cranks until it becomes unrecognizable.October 2007