Kila

Album review

Italian producer Herva (Hervè Atsè Corti) hails from the rural area surrounding Florence, far away from any hotspots of dance music culture. Likewise, his music seems dislocated from most trends or outside influences. Herva modifies his own hardware and software, and his music seems to follow its own logic, with scuffed-up rhythms and knackered samples that sort of stick out at times. There are traces of disco/house string melodies and the types of sweeping and filtering that might be associated with club-oriented music, but the scattered nature of the music assures that it's far from sounding smooth or DJ friendly. Herva's music recalls artists such as Hieroglyphic Being and Ekoplekz, but without the sense of industrial nihilism or anarchy. His music does have a sinister side, though, as best demonstrated by the muttered vocals, clipped beat, and growling synths of the album's title track. "Disk Atk" is another strange quilt of sounds, with flipping, malfunctioning drums, waves of glitch, and swirling guitar and piano loops. "Seat Behind Mirrors" is a bit brighter and more playful, with brisk, choppy beats and a fluttering Burundi vocal sample. "Mistakes Dealer (Solid State)" slows the tempo down a bit, offering Herva's laser-blasted, dubbed-out take on hip-hop. "Fading Above Smoke" begins with a corporate-sounding sample about "solving tomorrow's problems today" before launching into clattered drums and squirming synths that sound like a distorted, bleeding pirate radio transmission from London's broken beat scene. "Dust Cover" is a caffeinated dub mutation with twitchy hi-hats and gently hissing layers of static. Herva's sound is refreshingly hard to pin down, existing outside of any niche or scene, and there's no point in trying to categorize it, either. Kila is an enticingly warped album that gleefully disregards convention and blasts its own path through the dance music landscape.

© Paul Simpson /TiVo