Dino Sabatini & Luigi Tozzi Manicora

It’s a match made in heaven, techno veteran Dino Sabatini meets up and coming talent Luigi Tozzi, who over the last couple of years has delivered stellar EPs for the likes of Hypnus Records, Dynamic Reflection, Mental Modern, and Sabatini’s own Outis Music. Anyone familiar with the two will know they share an aptitude for adventurous and evolving techno. This is crystallised in this collaboration, which doesn’t take the easy path of creating straightforward club tracks. Instead, the three tracks on this release explore the subtler sides of the two producers. That’s not to say this isn’t club music - it is - but they have a lot more to offer than pure functionality. The EP opens with Manticora. This eight-minute experience takes the listener through winding claustrophobia as ringing feedback pulses across the stereo field and cavernous rhythms dance about, hard to quite grab. These rhythms build to a point to which they solidify and fall into place, a point at which the track gains a feeling of propulsion, alongside shifting and emotive reverberations and resonances. Next up is Celeno, a track that slowly unravels under a backing of shuffling hats and a rolling kick drum. Twinkling synths swirl around before giving way to a rhythmic and compelling melody. Celeno’s musical themes continue into the third and final track, Aello, which eases you in with softer drums while a haunting drone builds up. Over this, ghostly arpeggios develop alongside weightier drums that carry the track through until the end, leaving just enough time for the drone to ring out and provide a fitting end to the EP.