- Since finding himself in Berlin renting a room from Binh, Luca Cara (AKA Spacetravel) has become a sought-after producer. The Italian's superb—and now unnecessarily expensive—debut EP on Time Passages introduced his oddball sound. It has a foot in a few different worlds but doesn't wholly inhabit any of them, touching on the blue tones of deep house, the schizophrenic energy of electro, the jacking bleeps of loopy techno and classic minimal's seductive swing and cinematic flourishes. He's not the only producer mining this vein, but his productions have a one-take quality that's more immediate than the calculated attempts at scrappy weirdness marring some similar tunes. His second EP, Time To Wake Up, mints Vera and Alexandra's new Melliflow label and continues to explore the combination of wacky and subdued sounds that made his debut so fresh.
Time To Wake Up is somewhat leaner than its predecessor, and its charms develop carefully. For instance, "Personal Control" shuffles along for minutes before a muffled pad inches into the foreground, while the payoff in "Strange Experience," a carnivalesque ascending bassline, knocks you out of a false sense of security. As such, these tunes really come alive in the mix, especially when they're a little pitched up. In addition to their spartan structures, every cut has interesting low-end. Cara's basslines wiggle, duck and slide, creating a lively vibe that's complemented by all manner of quirky sound effects, which chirrup and zip around like nocturnal insects. It's a winning formula that clearly has legs—Cara has just released a double 12-inch of similar tracks for Perlon. But these selections will appeal most to DJs who value the diligent control of pacing and character.
TracklistA1 Strange Experience
A2 Ambient Microphones
B1 Personal Control
B2 Magic Track