Sebastian Russell: Infinite
Silenzio

Turin, Italy-based net label Silenzio makes its debut with Infinite, four funky minimal house cuts by Londoner Sebastian Russell. Though he cites Matthew Dear and Prefuse 73 as influences, Russell's style is closer to [a]pendics.shuffle's in its fusion of slippery tech-house beats with quirky clicks and thrums. A case in point, “Cold Little Venice” peppers a swinging jack with syllabic voice snippets and all manner of sputtering, splattering, and squelchy noises. Hints of Akufen surface too, especially in “Keep Going” and the title cut, with the former weaving an electro-funk vibe into its croaking pulse and voice fragments and the latter strafing its techno pulse with squirrelly whirrs and syllabic voice snippets. Having played guitar for fourteen years before abandoning it for electronic music-making in 2003, Russell may be somewhat new to the genre but certainly sounds like an old pro on these tracks.

November 2006