- The Black Nobility of Venice and Genoa is the second vinyl on Surface LTD, a sub-label of London's Surface Records, and it comes to us from Italian producer Francesco Baudazzi, perhaps better known as Obtane. While I wasn't impressed with the recent Obtane remix on Psychoskunk, here under his own name Baudazzi expands on the techno he's recently crafted on Sonic Groove and with Giorgio Gigli on Zooloft, and keeps things interesting over the course of five (relatively) short tracks.
On the A-side, "C.A.M.E.A." and Surface boss 65d Mavericks' edit of "Rosa dei Venti" each have grinding, off-beat riffs that tumble in and out of the mix. Both should find favor with Obtane fans, but I think the B-side is more appealing overall. "Propaganda 2" shows Baudazzi at his best, leading listeners headlong down dark horror film hallways that pulse with sinister energies. It's not all doom and gloom, though: airy tones sustained in the middle and high ranges of "Anello" (which features fellow Italian artist Dino Sabatini) smoothly counteract that track's serrated underside, and the levitating percussion and evocative chords of "The End?," much like the ambient bliss-outs that emerge from Zooloft on occasion, offer fleeting but definitive proof that there's still room for romance in Baudazzi's futuristic world of sound.
TracklistA1 C.A.M.E.A.
A2 Rosa Dei Venti (65d Mavericks Edit)
B1 Propaganda 2
B2 Anello
B3 The End ?