Repress!
As head of Italian (centric) Slow Motion label (and international artist sister imprint, Wrong Era), and through his own productions and remixes, Franz Scala has been pioneering the retro-futuristic aesthetic of club culture weaving together elements of proto-house, wave and Italo for the nuovo contemporary dancefloor long before it’s current vogue. Now alongside Bordello A Parigi, and supported by Sameheads, Slow Motion presents Scala’s euphoric debut album Mondo Della Notte.

A homage to the world of the night where Franz plies his trade. Solid production and understanding of the various references informing the contemporary dancefloor imbues this set with a quality of permanence. Each track clocks-in at around the seven minute mark accommodating all Scala’s retro influences providing the space for walls of sounds to expand and unfold along these infectious rhythm voyages.

Industrial guitars signal the title track’s intent while ethereal vocal snippets escape the machines hailing to the listener through densely effected, spacey drums blurring the boundaries between disco and wave. Stelle’s cross-continental tunnel trip takes the listener to a darkened dancefloor. Flickering light emerging by way of rapturous synths complementing each other in short radiant bursts resulting in a steady, off-kilter workout that wouldn’t sound out of place during the latter years of The Paradise Garage. Cometa’s urgency hurtles through the void towards it’s destination gaining momentum with each synth stab and chorus leaving the impression you’re listening to some long lost classic that just collided with the planet. Dreamline a rhythm dense Chicago influenced jam packed with desolate, metallic strings; whispered, twisted vox, and haunting phrases. Rising from a swamp Chrono startles the listener, the track’s infectious trippy patterns reminiscent of the hazy trance that occured when clubbing collided with guitars at the dawn of the second summer of love. Museum of Illusion comes at you like John Carpenter scoring a heavy giallo soundtrack. The artist’s trademark tough, italo-informed drum workouts are best illustrated by Scala’s rework of One Way Love. The composition’s rhythms’ morphing into a darker proto-house framework with a tougher edge than it’s previous incarnation. Gladio’s hypnotic tribute to the foundational cyber-funk of Detroit ends this trip into the nether world of strobes and speakers, a sword-edged machine conversation between a measured motor-city bass and responding off-world hardware, the tracks warm undertones taking you inwards beyond the industrial world these sounds originally emerged from.

It is a tribute to Franz’s careful, attentive approach to his love of music that, for the first time, after a decade running Slow Motion, he finally releases his own productions through his own label. Mondo Della Notte, a collection of contemporary mutations grounded in previous era’s, is the culmination and testimony to his artisanal dedication to his own creative output and his obsessive enthusiasm for what moves the dancefloor. Enjoy this journey through the night. Ascolta forte.

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