Metropolita Vinilo y CD

Review: Metropolita recordings is a label based in London, founded as an outlet for the recordings of Riccardo Buccirossi - who also happens to run the Imprints label that has released work by legends such as 100Hz and Ivan Iacobucci. Riccardo himself clearly has a penchant for the old-school sounds of classic techno and electro, as heard on the All Things Are One EP. "Urania" features a nice contrast between the clang and clatter of analogue drum computers and sampled latin polyrhythms - all sandwiched between the blips and bleeps. Additionally on the flip, you can hop aboard the acid express for the tripped out "Eroma" or be hypnotised by some mad Juno 106 action on the wacky "Ianoda".

Review: Riccardo Buccirossi is one of those artists who has no problem in pressing up his own debut release onto vinyl; he clearly has absolutely no need to go through other labels to get his point across, and we respect him for that. Of course, we should mention that this is some pretty stellar music, right here: the opener "Giraffe" shapes the minimal techno formula into something completely new and boundaries thanks to his use of electro as a guide to the arrangement, and the more beat-centric dub mix isn't anything short of brilliant. There's also a dub version of "Intothestruggles", a muddled, intricate web of washed-out sonics, followed by the glitchy folds of "Amazzonia" and the original mix of "Intothestruggles". All in all, this is a fine debut that will surely place this artist on the map.

Review: Fresh from taking part in Amazing Stories' dancefloor "whodunit" The Shaver Mystery, Riccardo Buccirossi returns to the Metropilita label he founded last autumn. As usual, all four tracks boast the London-based Italian's trademark low-end pulse and wayward drum machine percussion. Happily, he utilizes a variety of textures, melodies and samples to push each track in a different direction. Compare, for example, the dreamy, positive and spacey synthesizer motifs that mark out "Proxima" with the hustling TB-303 lines and metallic percussion hits of locked-in opener "Himalaya". Also impressive is "Secrets", whose industrial-strength sub-bass and sparse melodies subtly reference bleep-era British techno.