Gui Boratto - Take My Breath Away

It´s been the best part of two years since Gui Boratto´s Kompakt debut with the album ´Chromophobia´ occured, and while his career has continued on an upward spiral ever since, everyone has been anticipating a follow up for quite some time. The wait however is soon to be over, as his sophomore album ´Take My Breath Away´ is due to be released in March, preceded by the ´Atomic Soda EP´ in February.

Two years have passed and much has changed since Gui Boratto shot to prominence with his Kompakt debut ´Chromophobia´. A much needed spot of colour amidst the minimal milieu, Gui´s mixture of fierce production skills and a blissful pop sensibility have characterized his trajectory to the techno heavyweight before us today.

Amidst a rigorous touring schedule and busy family life arises ´Take My Breath Away´, Gui´s eagerly anticipated sophomore album. Laced with subtle critique and double-entendre, Gui´s philosophical approach is adept at packaging the rough, smooth, bitter and sweet into a number of emotive and ultimately optimistic productions.

The title track is a fitting example. Equally a statement of concern and call for solidarity, ´Take My Breath Away´ conveys a sense of scale and immediacy with soaring melodic progressions and pounding bass. Epic and densely constructed, clattering metallic tones escalate to a howling climax before a deep pulsed drive to close.

Recent single ´Atomic Soda´ rasps with gritty hovering synth and complex rhythms, phase transitioning into a monolithic bass stomp with staccato percussive modulation that was built to move. The bit crushed melodies of ´Colors´ enters shimmering dream pop territory, while ´Opus 17´ marks Gui´s 17th album track, continuing the lineage of his debut with a mixture of droning Cologne, shuffling IDM beats and kaleidoscopic synth textures.

´No Turning Back´ jars with uneasy cyclical rhythms, developing a tension that breaks with a chorus as grandiose as it is energetic. Gui´s wife Luciana Villanova provides the Midas touch yet again, contributing a stirring vocal reminiscent of her contribution to Gui´s anthemic ´A Beautiful Life´.

More understated than it´s predecessor, ´Azzura´ swings with delicate harmonic shifts, while ´Les Enfants´ features a tripped out organ melody and live drum break to continue the brief descent in pace.

´Ballroom´ is strictly club material, probing with stabbed synth and the hardest kick on the record. Taken deep and destabilized with uneasy melodic tones, it provides a fitting introduction to closer ´Eggplant´. Patiently progressing from ascendant synth chords to a tightly wound concoction of frenetic percussion and dissonant harmonic elements, ´Eggplant´ gathers enough energy to break the most vegetative of states.