- Skarn is the new alias of Italian artist Alessandro Cortini, a member of Nine Inch Nails and How To Destroy Angels who's also been involved in a handful of other experimentally inclined projects. Over the past two years he's released three LPs of droning, ambient-ish synth music, with the newest, Sonno, for Hospital Productions, being the sparsest, most cohesive and most cerebral. That approach now carries over to the taut, minimalist techno of Skarn, as heard on the Avian-issued debut Revolver.
Its three productions measure between 110 to 120 BPM, and they're very similar in substance, each drawing on twitchy treble and throbbing, modulated synth noise. The title track is ten minutes long, and worth the extra length, its lightly tweaked percussion propelling a low hum that grows into menacing masses of fuzz. "Antipaste" and "Sandy" are shorter and more to the point, and the latter is particularly fraught, thanks to a bassline bursting at its seams and a wall-of-distortion finish. Clinical and creepy, this record's an intriguing start for Cortini's latest endeavor.
TracklistA1 Revolver
B1 Antipaste
B2 Sandy