- "Yes, it's made for the dance floors—you just have to trust us on this one," says Brutaż of its latest release. Through difficult, devious records from Jules Venturini, Mchy I Porosty and Draveng, the label arm of the Polish experimental club night has delighted in pushing dancers' trust to the limit. Carlo Maria's label debut is another test of faith. The Berlin-based producer is best known for Punctum, a lush synth project with Caterina Barbieri. In its cool, intimidating rigour, Kenk! betrays his academic training—at conservatories in Bologna and The Hague—and looks to "minimalism and contemporary club culture." It features hardly any drums, just dry lattices of looped sound that induce an austere hypnotism. As with most Brutaż artists, it's not easy to tune into Maria's strange frequency, but the effort is worth it.
Flashes of colour catch the ear first. "Miagolandia" is a grand, distortion-crumpled melody evaporating over four solemn minutes. "Mirage," the EP's highlight, loops metallic pitched tones that dance and glint with uncanny light. The rest of the record is void of even this brightness. "Rotolame"'s dry rhythmic clicks develop over eight minutes into undulating drone. "Kenk Kenk" is the closest thing to techno by virtue of its kick drum, a dull thud half-lost in a wormhole of hallucinatory effects. It's like being inside the blueprints for a vintage Plastikman tune, the forms utilitarian and the airspace dry and unreal. The odd one out is the closer, "Ghost Waves," where regular rhythm is replaced with sparse, uncertain concussions. There's no saying where Brutaz might go next.
TracklistA1 Miagolandia
A2 Rotolame
B1 Mirage
B2 Kenk Kenk
B3 Ghost Waves