- Two techno hypnotists hit the studio with dazzling results.
- The pitch: an app that links likeminded dance music artists for collaboration. You'd put in a few key details—style, aims, production method—upload a photo posing next to your favourite synth, and just wait for the offers to roll in. This million-dollar idea came to mind while absorbing the Raso EP, the first collaborative release from Adiel & Anthony Linell. Here are two artists who seem destined for each other. Adiel is an Italian producer and DJ who's spent the last few years establishing a percussive, minimalistic sound for a party's deepest moments. Linell, similarly, creates techno to get lost in, pushing a vibe that, like Adiel, achieves sonic alchemy when done right. Both artists' music carries an inherent risk of tipping into monotony, but for the most part both offer enough for dancers to grab onto, something that's very much the case with Raso.
Grooves are, unsurprisingly, the EP's forte. The trippiest of these opens the record with an eel-like rhythm that seems to always slip through your fingers. "Raso" would likely be a bitch to mix, but the impressively heady atmosphere and irregular time signature could make for a set's most mind-scrambling moment. That said, the other two tracks aren't far behind. The jagged kick pattern and locomotive synth line on "Punto In Aria" makes it feel like each new bar arrives with a bunny hop, progressively swelling the track's intensity levels. "Decoro" is more delicate in temperament, with a groove like a precious gem slowly rotating in space. Adiel and Linell need do little more than hold its contours to the light to make it dazzle.
TracklistA1 Raso
A2 Decoro
B1 Punto In Aria