Artist: Alan Backdrop
Release: Hydra
Label: Semantica
Release Date: 18th June 2018
Water can exist in four different states: liquid water, liquid crystalline, solid ice and vapour gas. Hydra, latest excellent work by Alan Backdrop out on Semantica in June, seems taking us into a fascinating journey through all of them.
Nature lover and keen observer of the surroundings, the Italian producer is a master of that atmospheric techno evoking haunted landscapes, always delivering the perfect sound encounter between delicate and dark, diaphanous and powerful, elegant and deep.
Caph (A1) is the rain, liquid water: jingling beats, bouncing sounds falling from the sky onto wet surfaces. Like a juggler holding rain-made balls in his hands, he creates a delicate tension between mesmerizing clinks and percussive sounds.
St130 (A2) is liquid crystalline: when the matter becomes almost solid, the artist combines delicacy and bouncing sounds with a darker atmosphere, wisely dropping a couple of acid reverberations throughout the track. As his name might suggest, Alan Backdrop is a real scenographer, a craftsman of the deepest atmospheric riffs.
Vvat (B1) is solid ice, natural evolution of St130. Keeping it tense and acidly echoing, he adds some balanced rattling in the background, creating the most evocative nocturnal atmosphere. Elegant and powerful, this is the soundtrack of a lucid dream.
ESP (B2) is gas: slower bouncing beats, ice sublimating into vapour. The curtain opens right at the beginning and unveils all of the artist’s skills, his pervasive sound neatly and silently filling the space: a natural world made of vapour. It is still watery, but never cold, it’s airy and graceful: the painting of a sublime natural landscape.
It’s a Semantica debut for the artist (real name Alessio Meneghello) and yet another great add for Svreca’s exquisite label.
Listen to the excerpt of Hydra EP here: