- “There's nothing better than being somewhere and remembering some tune. It's great," Bruno Pronsato recently told RA. "You don't get that so much in techno. You don't get the…you know, where you can whistle it? To me, that's the real winner, when you can.” To some, that might sound like it’s stating the bleeding obvious, but the idea is actually heresy in certain minimal circles: I once saw Fumiya Tanaka spin a two hour set without one single melody in it at all, like somehow that was a badge of honour. Congrats to Tanaka-san for being uber-minimal, but I think his attitude misses the point – turning your nose up at melody on principle doesn’t make your music any better, it just makes it sound rule-bound. Not to mention, after two hours, pretty boring.
‘At Home I’m a Tourist’, the first single from Pronsato’s forthcoming album, feels like it breaks the rules. It’s minimal techno in the sense that its skeleton is freely constructed from various rhythmic bits and pieces – slack-as-anything claps, a live ride, detuned toms, each of which sounds clear and fresh – but unlike the purists, Pronsato isn’t afraid to give it a little heart: Just one element out of many, the deep, breathing synth hook that arrives halfway through to give the cut a strong identity that feels like a real step forward.
Pronsato, who used to drum in a punk band, also understands that electronic music is the opposite of live playing: where bands struggle to get tight, producers find it hard to get loose. ‘At Home…’ succeeds in this respect, too: it’s got a free, psychedelic feeling to it reminiscent of Villalobos or the best tracks on Cadenza. It feels like anything could happen. And it does: at the end of the track, the synth ends up sparring with what sounds like a throat cancer patient speaking with a vibrator pressed against his neck. Fantastically messy.
This is a one-sided 12” pressed in a limited edition of 500 copies, so be quick to snap it up. I dunno whether Bruno will get his wish - it's unlikely you'll be whistling this on the way home from the club, but you will remember it, probably as the best track you heard that night.
TracklistA At Home I'm a Tourist