- After an opening night in Leeds earlier this year, Krucht & Flucht introduced themselves to the Manchester club scene by inviting the new generation of Naples techno artists to the city: Joseph Capriati, Massi DL and Lucio Aquilina. Capriati has been in the vanguard of Italy's resurgent techno movement, and releases by all three have been charting with DJs throughout Europe.
Lucio Aquilina, the first of the trio to perform, played with Ableton and struggled to keep the (frankly underwhelming) crowd on the dance floor. I'd be more inclined to complain about the young crowd than the quality of music. Capriati followed and, as he was DJing with Traktor Scratch, might have been expected to play a more varied and dynamic set than Aquilina did with his live set. Not so—he got the crowd back on the floor but didn't really build things up with his set. I was reminded of why I'm not enthralled with all the Italian minimal—too many tunes following a standard template and with a sound that reminds me more of Nintendo consoles than advanced music technology.
Ruby Lounge itself is an attractive club with plush sofas tucked away here and there, the kind of place that has an unimpressive soundsystem and outrageous prices at the bar. It's not an obvious place to run a seemingly student-focused night, but the low ceiling and the compartmentalised layout did help encourage the atmosphere. Tucked away at the back was a second room, but with half a soundsystem (i.e. no bass) and music too similar to the main sound, it wasn't worth much attention.
Massi DL closed the show in badass style, getting straight down to business with some booty-shaking house. Playing with Traktor and a MIDI controller, there were some avoidably slack mixes but it was just too funky for anyone to care. If DJ Sneak traded in his Chevrolet for an Alfo Romero, this is probably what it would sound like.
As they are three of the youngest artists on the scene today, and known for their quality productions rather than their live performances, I think the best is yet to come from the new Neapolitan techno mafia. And hopefully the same can be said of Krucht & Flucht as well: next month, Berlin's Pan-Pot.