- Bogdan Scasascia’s music is rooted in sampling. Secondo, his first modus operandi, conjures a manic hypercollage using the sampladelic cut-up techniques of Akufen, Circus Company and the like, while AM/PM, his other working alias, is simply the same method allowed more breathing space. The compositions on ‘Maratea’, like those on the magnificent ‘Also’ EP, slowly blend interlocking layers of droning melodies, which ebb and flow through the mix to create an endlessly modulating composition all held together by deep, tight tech-house grooves.
The background elements on this record hark back to the earliest AM/PM experiments on ‘The Ends’ where Scasascia spun the dying bars of other recordings into loop/soup compositions in the vein of Jan Jelinek. But it’s the winsome flow and evaporating, cavern-reverb melody parts that make this EP truly special, melding the high concept of the project to a gliding groove exquisitely tuned to make the deep floor ache.
‘Rather than Less’, the closer, begins with a lumbering groove that appears to be suffering from loop lump, but as the melodies continue to fade the drums appear, over time, to be phasing in and out, and with the addition of nothing more than a neat cymbal, it all hangs together.
Maratea is explicitly the second part of a ‘series’, following in a grand tradition of minimalist electronic producers like Wolfgang Voigt, Moritz von Ozwald and Donnacha Costello. It’s an ambitious gambit, but, provided Bogdan manages to maintain the quality seen thus far, he might just pull it off. Quality stuff.
TracklistA Maratea
B Rather Than Less