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ARTIST
TITLE
Funkoholic
FORMAT
CD
LABEL
CATALOG #
AMAM 025CD
AMAM 025CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
5/14/2013
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AMAM presents an album by Sardinian producer Renato Figoli. Figoli has been drifting on and off the electronic radar since a flurry of releases on Lo Fi Stereo, Gumption, and Trapez launched him into prominence. During this timeframe, he also linked up with a teenage Alessio Mereu who, under Renato's guidance, learned the ins and outs of production with Logic. Now that Alessio's label AMAM has built up an international audience over the past few years, it seemed the perfect home for Renato's new full-length record, his first since 2008. Funkoholic closes the loop in a musical sense, merging deep techno, funk, dub, jazz and ambient in a truly idiosyncratic manner. The album consists of nine tracks, each linked by elegantly-crafted ambient transitions that leave the listener in a state of suspended animation. This constant alternation between inner space and outer space is one of the album's defining features, balancing style and content in equal measures. It also allows Renato to patiently strip down his arrangements. His music has always sung in a language of its own: the chord progressions, fat, rolling bass lines and quirky rhythms instantly recognizable to anyone acquainted with his sound. Here, though, he takes the formula one step further, inviting jazz guitarist Carlo Ditta and trumpeter Mario Massa to add their virtuosity to the proceedings. In fact, their classy improvisations dominate the opening section of the album, adding an additional dimension to the epic soundscapes of "Underpool" and the raw, shuffling title-track, while Neville Attree's commentary on the double-edged nature of obsession lends "...Anymore" a dark, brooding energy. "And Again" is a fine example of how peripheral elements from one track can slowly move to the foreground to become the central focus of the next, while "Buck a Guy" returns to classic Figoli territory, turning the screw with a twisting acid loop. "Call One" slows things down to a deep, throbbing groove, again utilizing Ditta's deft fingerwork in a spontaneous merging of minds. "Super Lemon Vapor" dives even deeper into the subconscious with tripped-out metallic FX. This all sets the scene for one final push as the twin forces of "Morning" and "Night Express" up the tempo in a powerful burst of cyclic energy. When Renato's at the controls, the crowd will be out of their seats and dancing in the aisles.
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