Abstrakt Cristalli Ionici EP Just This Records | The Electro Review

Abstrakt
Cristalli Ionici EP
Just This Records
TBR: 28th June


Back to the front of the queue, Milan's Just This return with yet another killer EP. This time it's created by the Italian twosome, Luca Bambelli and Filippo Scorucchi. Their work under the Abstrakt name has taken them both through the realms of psychedelic and cavernous electronica in a short time and is culminating in this debut for the label. With imaginative mixings and subtle ambient throughout, the disorientating and danceable meet in the middle on this latest output.


The music begins on a heady bass, it reverberates in the sub section and then builds into a unison kick drum. This penetrates the soundsphere with more clarity while the bass wobbles in and out of audibility. It mutates into a twanging synth like a slapped bass guitar while swirling synths spark creative imagery in the periphery. Effects and intonations on the consistent bass bring out shimmering and glistening on the reflective levels. Then, a cymbal is added which once more pegs down the track with a tempo we can enjoy. The minimal content of the title track, Cristalli Ionici, brings about a space-age and sci-fi feel that relies on our minds to fill in the gaps. The rhythm builds as the echo on the percussion pushes into feedback, piercing cymbal strikes and snares tear through the backdrop.


It's followed with a snappy intro. This remix of the same track by none other than Marcel Fengler doesn't pull its punches. Frantic snare and hats thump in time to pounding kick while that slow bassline is replaced by funky slaps and inverted beats. Heavy synth tones slam down from the top corners into the centre to bring sludgy and reverberating energy to the entire mix while wispy lines of treble fly across the stodgy sky. Everything quietens down to let the undertones carry the momentum by themselves. Drums rage in the background while the synthesiser runs the course. As the tone is pushed from one side to the other, amplitude gradually finds a way to increase itself and the percussion side of the track finds itself in its rightful place again.


Next is X Ray. It starts on a house style handclap and drum combo which builds with layers until a sample of the outside soars across it. New drums are added, more beats find a repeating groove that compliments the entire track. Tones call out in simple melodics, summertime grooves and computerised sunshine glint on the icy surfaces. Where are we? Somewhere near the X Ray machine perhaps. Skeletal sounding in a sense, individual parts with unique and identifiable sections work together in a dynamic and interconnected amalgam of sound. Bells and bass cast shapes that resemble archaic glyphs as buzzing and windy notes swish in curtains of other-worldly thereness.


Ending with a thick bass drum that kicks alongside a warbling fur of carpeting tone, this is joined by a tribal melody on tubular drums and hand struck skins. Cymbal hat strikes bring yet another flavour of dancing energy to the collaboration of directions. Drone sounds continue to crisp and burn in portioned amplitudes within the pouncing beats. Massive walls of rhythm keep pushing forwards in repeating bars which become almost hypnotic as they persistently push forwards. A new tone builds underneath, adjusting the headspace with every revolution of the vinyl. Now we're building up something almost sinister, that is before it fades again into a realm of obscurity.


This intellectual and sense provoking release by Abstrakt fulfils the image their name portrays and provides yet more excellent material to listen to, mix with, and be inspired by.   

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