220 Tones - Nicola Ratti

You’re not really interested in an album review,  least of all from me. This isn’t The Wire and I’m a nobody.
   Why would you care if I said this album is BRILLIANT or FANTASTIC and so on – we've all got our own opinions. You read a review to get an idea of what the music’s about, yes. What’s this about?
   It’s –
   Ambient
   Atmospheric
   Glitchy
   Warm with being too soft
   &
   Rough without being Noise
   All that, yes.
   It’s...you know...VERY GOOD. It contains pulses rather than beats, in places. It feels contemporary and timeless, unless your idea of contemporary is Tyler The Creator, although you could love both.
   Everything here is well organised, edited, constructed, sampled (?) – without sounding clinical, or cold.
   At times the machines do sing.
   Hold on, I’ve got to check the spuds and put the chicken in the oven. Now, you just wouldn’t read that in a Wire review, would you? It’s what makes blogging so different, so appealing.
   This album’s not so different from many others in the idea, but in its execution it stands apart, above, out etc. It’s varied in tone, mood and content, but isn’t scatterbrained eclecticism.
   Some names that might have influenced Ratti: Stockhausen, Ussachevsky, Jeck, Marclay, Schaeffer, and Riley.
   I’ve played it twice in a row, and I don’t do that very often.

From his website:
'Born in Milan in 1978. Began his musical career as guitar player. Lately his approach is more focused on beat-analog experimentation. Since 5 years ago he is a member of the desertic soundtrack-band Ronin. He is currently working with: Giuseppe Ielasi with whom he formed the project entitled "Bellows", Attila Faravelli as "Faravelliratti"and with Fatima Bianchi for audio/video works. He also collaborated in various live performances with Dean Roberts, Oren Ambarchi, Phill Niblock and Rhys Chatham. He has performed live in Europe and North America, and his albums had been released by Anticipate, Preservation, Megaplomb, Boring Machines, Coriolis Sounds, Zymogen. Nicola Ratti bases his music upon the search for a personal language that is capable of joining together basic song structure, electro-acoustic experimentation with a sensibility that ranges from improvisation to the almost artiginal construction of sound.'