Reviews

Organ Thing“Perfectly executed electronic music. Motion, glitch with a smooth stability core anchored to multiple interior orienting points”. An album that comes out on January 1st, 2024, next year then. This is crisp, pure, it is almost perfect, is it AI? Haven’t looked yet, it feels perfectly possible that it is, but then there is warmth,, it does feel real. Who or what is Build? “Build isn’t a techno producer”, Build is apparently Damon Zucconi, some of it is almost church-like, one of those very modern very white ultra clean churches, the type that worships the god of minimalist technology. This is a very stylish very forward looking album, does it sound a little like one of those slick adverts for futuristic electric car type lifesyles?  

“Zucconi delivers a unique blend of breakbeat-driven techno and darkwave. His latest album Orienting Points builds from the foundations of his previous work to create something that feels familiar yet completely new”. This really is an album designed for movement. It is both refreshing and tranquil, it feels effortless, it feels very very 2024, “Damon Zucconi creates exceptionally well planned urban landscapes created for the convenience of suburban commuters”. And a word for that perfect artwork, artwork matters…

Original > HERE

Listening WindBI don’t know much about Build, and I have to admit, I like this aura of mild self-seclusion. Anyway, it seems to be a moniker for Damon Zucconi, not a techno producer strictly, not a professional musician, but a visual artist from Bethpage, NY, who works with digital art mostly. In his catalog, there are works created through software, HTML art, pixel art, and generally virtual and digital artifacts, many of which are accessible online (like this one ), this world map in HTML, and this webpage. He also designed the graphic project for Arca’s Kick pentalogy compilation, overlaying the five different covers of the five releases. As an electronic music producer, he made his debut with Untitled Substance back in 2007, later (re)discovered and resurrected by Elon Katz, a Los Angeles-based producer who re-released the album on his Zero Grow label in 2019.

Untitled Substance had all the flaws of an amateur album, made more by a sincere enthusiast than an experienced producer,  techno clubs  that still renounces the “I” of IDM but shows some elements of naïve charm (for example, “No Fun”). A year later, and fifteen years after the original debut, Damon Zucconi returns with a new project and a new moniker for the Sheffield label Audiobulb. 2021’s A Development With A Grid Of Streets And A Shopping Center Heart  has completely abandoned the techno rides of the debut; the twenty-something from 2007 has become a self-assured artist, a professional growth that has also translated into his musical activity: he adds touches of ambient, glitch and soundscapes in the footsteps of Autechre’s Tri Repetae and Amber, perhaps still a bit naïve but effective, and with some thinly veiled ambition (“Hit Ring” seems to want to study the complex details of “Cfern,” Autechre’s undoubtedly masterpiece.).

Orienting Points firmly maintains the coordinates of the first album. Same avatar image—a strongly pixelated photo of a human face, probably female, suggesting an idea of a still blurry future—same patchwork for the cover—a CD that seems to be recovered from a landfill, suggesting a retro-futuristic patina. Same languages: mature IDM tinged with glitch and ambient. The opening track, ‘Bright,’ is a dreamlike and gentle lullaby, reminiscent of Opiate, while the title track “Orienting Points” is built on an elegant and whispered melody, almost the sonic equivalent of a pointillist painting: it wouldn’t look out of place next to Autechre’s more melodic records such Oversteps, sure, but also the recent Plus. “Three” and “Train” add glitch textures, while “Run” and “The One” turn dramatically towards percussive dynamics and occasionally darker tones, still maintaining an austere and elegant melodic line. Some tension drops towards the end (“Cable Crossing,” “SCE 1 9”), but the robotic and almost industrial techno “MD S2 8” fully compensates for those drops. Damon Zucconi proves to be a high-quality amateur producer, Orienting Points serving as a reminder that simplicity is often a winning card. Electronic music may not be his preferred art form, but it is perhaps his naive and practical approach that yields effective and appreciable results like this.

Original > HERE

Musique MachineBuild’s latest release, Orienting Points, is a collection of radically different moods and techniques, which do not always mesh well with one another. 
My hunch is that the plural in “points” offers some indication that the 11 tracks that comprise this work are not meant to be conclusions or summaries of the given mixture. Instead, they are the starting point(s) for whatever follows in their wake. As a whole, the album feels like a study in multiple personality disorder, in large part due to the nature of the transitions that occur between said personalities, which are more abrupt than smooth. For example, the first three tracks are warm, glitchy ambience, devoid of any semblance of syncopation, reminiscent of moments of early Markus Popp (more on the 90s below). Then, out of the blue, “Run” comes on like the accompaniment to a radio broadcast or commercial campaign, and then settles quickly into more programmed beats. It’s hard not to take all of this at face value, whether that is intended or not. I think the points that are doing the orienting are all of a similar era, or epoch, depending on your level of competence. In other words, Orienting Points could be thought of as a kind of mixtape or playlist, with one important difference: it is not one geared toward showcasing the breadth of a particular style or genre. Rather, it is a compilation that showcases style as such.
 
This approach puts listeners on the stage with Build, highlighting the degree to which they might, or might not, be familiar with the tributaries flowing beneath what is on offer. IDM is probably the widest and most sensible point of departure, but Build does not merely ape his sources. Much of Orienting Points is a study in omission. In other words, what is left when some essential part of the equation is removed? On “Train” we get all of the usual sonic material we are used to with Drum & Bass, but there is no bass to speak of, no powerful subharmonic content to deepen the cuts and breakbeats. It’s just the drums and the ephemera that goes along with it – little synth melodies, an abstracted cymbal or bell – you get the drift. When “Sotto”, Orienting Points’ final track, starts to bloom, the delimited boundaries of Build’s universe come into focus, with a female voice uttering what sounds like “Vermentino”. Maybe I just wanted a glass (it’s one of my favs), but the Italian of the track’s title, along with Build’s (aka Damon Zucconi) ostensible Italo-roots, could be a sign that this sotto (Italian for “under”), is twofold: physically submerged as well as under the influence of. I digress.
 
Orienting Points will appeal to those both initiated and uninitiated with those furtive years of the mid-90s, when intelligence and brainy experimentation were actually values within the broader field of electronic music. It’s not nostalgia, though. Build is working through his past, like any good adult should.

Original > HERE