- INIT is Nadia D'Alo and Benedikt Frey, both of whom recently appeared on the title track of Massimiliano Pagliara's album. You might recognize Frey from a run of 12-inches a couple of years back, which ran the gamut from playful to stony-faced. Now he's teamed up with D'Alo and signed to Spanish label Hivern Discs. Their debut as INIT precedes an album later in the year, and it takes Frey's dressed-down techno and clothes it in a sleek, goth-tinged style.
Both original tracks are monstrous slow-burners. The zombie march of "Talking About Talking" has a whiff of New Beat to it, but the energy the track works up is dissipated in its free-floating breakdown. Once it resumes, even the acid line they let loose feels torpid. The faster, brighter "Blackbird" melts into an ethereal passage with angelic vocals from D'Alo, while heady synths fizz with the feel of krautrock. The duo are more engaging when they lean on D'Alo's voice (as opposed to the apathetic chanting on "Talking About Talking").
Willie Burns riffs on "Blackbird"'s vintage quality for his remix. The New Yorker smooths out the track's ominous demeanour into a chirpy boogie, adding playful leads that double-up and branch off into unexpected notes. Cliff Lothar's more simplistic rework underlines the existing dread with some sulking basslines and post-punk reverb, giving it a tinted-windows shade. C.P.I—another Hivern Discs duo whose epic "El Túnel" was the label's finest moment last year—offer the pick of the litter with their version of "Talking About Talking," which has a wiry new bassline and an even more dramatically silent breakdown. INIT are slightly overshadowed by their remixers, but this solid debut holds promise for their upcoming LP.
TracklistA1 Talking About Talking
A2 Talking About Talking (CPI Remix)
B1 Blackbird
B2 Blackbird (Willie Burns Remix)
B3 Blackbird (Cliff Lothar Remix)