- Marco Carola may be an Italian, but he sure as hell sounds as if he's Mannheim born-and-raised on his newest 12-inch for Plus 8. "Bloody Cash" is such a boom-tchk exemplar in the Cécille tradition, in fact, that you half-expect children singing the hook to "Sunshowers" to pop up halfway through. Instead, you get competing melodies that play brilliantly off one another—a veritable Bach counterpoint by techno standards. The key, as it is with all of this new-fangled Mannheim house is the forward momentum engendered by the irrepressible beat, but Carola's light and frothy hook makes it something special.
Not so much for "Sirens," which brings up the B-side in unspectacular fashion. Effortless this one ain't, as Carola draws up various templates and throws them all into the pot for your delectation. There's the bass drop, the melody moving up and down, even a rarely repeated bass hiccup. Like "Bloody Cash," it's going to most likely work excellently in certain types of sets, but it's meat for the grinder, a track built specifically to fit. There is a moment where "Sirens" almost sounds industrial—a sign of life in the breakdown—but as you might expect, it's quickly extinguished in favor of business as usual. Maybe there's more life in Mannheim right now than there is in minimal techno, but I'll take the A-side any day.
Tracklist A Bloody Cash
AA Sirens