Milanese // iTAL tEK

Milanese

A native Londoner now based in sunny Birmingham, where he lives right next door to Warp Records' Chris Clark, Steve (Milanese) is an incredible young producer. He made his debut in 2004 with a 12" release called Vanilla Monkey on Warp's dance offshoot 12" imprint, Arcola Records, and then released his debut mini LP, also on Warp, 1 Up. He now signs to Planet Mu for his debut album "Extend".

A familiar phrase to old school video gamers, Milanese describes the sounds on Extend as "jungle / garage / ragga / house / techno. Mashed up robot music, basically like a computer game gone horribly wrong."

This is actually a much too modest attempt at pinning down the fierce, raw aggression of his rumbling beats, the sinister emotional tone and sophisticated panache of his production. While Milanese is a proficient multi-instrumentalist, in particular as a pianist (with 13 years of study notched up) and trombonist, his true forte appears to be 'fusing elements of electro-acoustic music with mad beats and bass'. Emphasis on the bass, okay?

From the digital dancehall holocaust of "Mr Bad News", ragga / garage audio terror and destruction on "Dead Man Walking" and the junglist clash and clatter breakbeats of "Mr Ion", Extend includes the occasional alarming vocal eruption that is guaranteed to scare the living daylights out of passing neighbourhood pets and any children within earshot. So turn it up!

A DJ fixture at squatter parties in the 90s, Milanese spent his time at university studying electronic music (this may have simply constituted a lot of raving) and also busies himself actually making unique instruments. A man of many talents, indeed.



iTAL tEK

Positioned on the shiny bit of the cutting edge of dubstep electronica, Alan Myson's iTAL tEK project has won over a legion of fans in the last year or two with massive releases for SQUARE and Planet Mu providing the essential platform for his intricate programming abilities and moody attitude ridden dubstep style. His debut full length continues his previous good work with a very coherant and personally touched collection of hi-end dubstep convolutions that sounds like the ideal succesor to the Planet Mu IDM staples of yesteryear. Over eleven tracks Ital Tek sweeps between intensely edited rhythm freakouts and bass mangles with an omnipresent compositional element that lends much of his work a developed melodic and harmonic style close to that of label mate Boxcutter, or IDM heroes Wauvenfold or Funkstorung. Strong gear from a talented producer