- Best known for his techno releases with Tenax and Cocoon, Ilario Alicante lives up to his prodigious tab by veering off into some idiosyncratic downtempo on Window on the World. The air hangs heavy with melancholia on the lead cut. It's ushered in by what sounds like the break from Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" injected with Xanax, swiftly joined by a mewing analogue synth line that patters across it and the most doleful of female vocals. It's techno simmered on a low heat for several hours. It's a testimony to record's creativity and quality that Matthew Herbert gets his hands on the remix. The electronica deity gently pushes it back to the dance floor—although it's hardly a crazed interpretation—with Herbert working in muted Indonesian gamelan-style organic percussion to the piece.
"Untitled Love" is even lovelier and bleaker, with a funereal piano motif, crisp but subtle techno rhythm and a robotic, emotionless voice incanting over it. It's flipped on its head by Sweden's MRSK, who drops it into a bubbling vat of growling dub techno, spilling over into scary synth lines and chattering cut-up vocals. Alicante, in techno guise, would approve. As ILL-R he would already have headed back home for a smoke.
TracklistA1 Window On The World
A2 Window On The World (Matthew Herbert Remix)
B1 Untitled Love
B2 Untitled Love (MRSK Remix)