ARTICLES
Benoît Pioulard's Précis
Label: Dynamophone
Label: Hidden Shoal

ALBUMS
Aemae
A Lily
Arc Lab
Blotnik Brothers
Gui Boratto
Cagesan
Jeremy Caulfield
Loren Dent
Do Make Say Think
Eats Tapes
Enduser
Domink Eulberg
Explosions in the Sky
Michael Fahres
The Field
Frivolous
Maximilian Hecker
Hug
Hush Arbors
Jan-M. Iversen
Espen Jørgensen
Kattoo
O.Lamm
Bruce Levingston
Tobias Lilja
Lusine
Marcia Blaine School
The Missing Ensemble
Nebulo
Ölvis
Charlemagne Palestine
Palomar
Pornopop
The Postmarks
Propergol Y Colargol
The Retail Sectors
R/R Coseboom
Sankt Otten
Scratch Massive
Slow Dancing Society
Stars of the Lid
subtractiveLAD
Sunosis
Aoki Takamasa
Amon Tobin
Tokyo Mask
Kate Wax
Wes Willenbring
Windmill

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
Chaos.Lovers
Cryosphere
Hub: 2004-2005
Rufs
Satoshi Tomiie

3" /7" /10"/12"/EPs
Agnes
AM/PM
Arctic Sunrise
Audion
Characterize 1
Dartriix
Death is Nothing To Fear
Don't Be A Stranger
Einóma
Fusiphorm
Heartthrob
Human Nature
Infant Cycle / Antmanuv
Lilienweiss
Luci
Mauve
Paco Osuna
Ben Parris
Carola Pisaturo
Portable
Sutekh
System
Aoki Takamasa
Cortney Tidwell
Andy Vaz

Gui Boratto: Chromophobia
Kompakt

Two songs into Chromophobia, it began to dawn on me Brazilian Gui Boratto has more in common with Booka Shade than the prototypical Kompakt artist. Sure, Boratto's got that precision-tooled Cologne styling down pat but he bolsters it with a melodic finesse and syncopated, Technicolor swing that aligns him closely to Get Physical artists Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier. Simmering with percolating rhythms and restrained emotion, “Mr Decay” and “The Blessing,” for instance, boast the same kind of teasing melodies and roaming bass lines that makes so much of Movements so fabulous. Equally strong, “Terminal” struts with a primal swing, its hook a one-note staccato motif that hammers as insistently as a woodpecker; over the course of the tune's six hypnotic minutes, Boratto artfully weaves lurching techno pulses with fuzzy keyboard interweaves and slow-burning emotive buildups. The spectacular “Beautiful Life” not only churns with as much New Wave as techno fervour but incorporates entrancing vocal chants and even a Peter Hook bass line too. Elsewhere, the cinematic overture “Scene” offers chiming cascades and subtle pulses that evoke Ai Records' sleek tech-house style. On the dreamier tip, the mellifluous “Acrostico” unfurls with a delectable splendour, and, though brief, the becalmed interlude “Mala Strana” charms with a descending piano(!) line that's Satie-like in its simplicity. Some left-field surprises emerge along the way too, like the Sergio Leone guitar twang Boratto slathers over the string-kissed strut of “Xilo.” Chromophobia's quality level never flags despite its 70-minute length, and the album's consistently superior material (the set includes the intricate K2 banger “Gate 7” though not the superb “Like You,” recently heard in a Supermayer mix) testifies to the caliber of Boratto's artistry.

April 2007