Davide Squillace - Tutti Frutti

Artist: Davide Squillace

Title: Tutti Frutti

Label: Hideout

Catalog #: HO003

Genre: Tech-house

Format: 12", Digital

Release Date: February 2, 2010

Rating: 8

Sometimes I imagine the little shakers and micro-snares in electronic songs as insects, buzzing around, showing up in weird places, and disappearing when some bigger sound gobbles them up. On the new EP Tutti Fruitti, Davide Squillace takes great care to make sure each of these tiny sounds has a personality. When the main rhythm section drops out halfway through “Tutti Frutti” it’s as if you’ve turned off your Jeep in the jungle and now you can hear how sinister all those background squeaks and crunches really are.

The segment that follows is the high point of the record. The bass cuts out, a little dragonfly of clicks flies past, and three snare hits signal everything else to shut up while the beat seems to come back. A lead enters, but it’s not much more than vocoded breath. After it cuts out, anything that marks the 4/4 pulse is gone, but just before you get your bearings a split-second fill points to the downbeat and the real groove drops.

After all the imagery in the first track, “Old Dusty Pictures” explores tactile effects. A synth pulse that pans quickly from right to left tells you exactly how your head should be moving, and when the bass comes in and demands an up-down nod, your head is confused and upset and, above all, dancing. “Crocodile Tears” continues the disorientation, as formless vocals come in and out without warning and lead the track to the EP’s other highlight, a musique concrète breakdown that lasts about 10 seconds before the beat comes down on its head.

Squillace grew up in Naples, a place with none of the serious club infrastructure of more cosmopolitan European cities, and all his neighbors probably thought he was nuts. Now he offers listeners paranoia, dissociation and mind-control. Thank goodness for alienation.

-Travis Korte

Tracks:

A) Tutti Frutti

B1) Old Dusty Pictures

B2) Crocodile Tears