Transistor Replica by Fabrizio Mammarella

Number 5 from Slow Motion and this time Fabrizio Mammarella steps and delivers the goods.

Mercator gallops along with the drums and percussion having more than a hint of the post-disco New York 1983′s about them. The super-squelchy acid is from Chicago ’87 via London ’88 and Ghent ’89 but absolutely, resolutely now and the soaring lead lines and FX turn the whole thing into one of those utterly airborne slices of prime-time club music that is far more champagne-fuelled first class transatlantic travel than a cheap and cheerful Easyjet set short hop flight where you have to pay for your peanuts.

Lie (Living in Ecstasy) takes the tempo down a notch or two in heavy eye-lidded mdma kind of way and heads firmly into red light sleaze territory. It’s so sleazy in fact that if you nip off for a few minutes to get the drinks in it’ll very likely polish off all your drugs and try it on with your girlfriend. Chunky acid, warm pads, and broken robot noises are very much the order of the day here.

Skymed keeps the tempo down but stomps that much harder and goes straight for the 80s jugular with deep squelching moogy bass and lead lines, heavily reverberating claps and the pads set to stun instead of massage. A healthy dose of digital delay feedback and outer space fireworks going off all over the place seal the deal with this one.

(review by Andy Blake, May 2011)