ARP XP – Closer LP
Quality drum and bass album from Italian artist ARP XP. Listen or buy.
ARP XP is Simone Deiana, a graphic designer from Cagliari, Sardinia. He’s also been doing drum and bass / dub tunes for a few years. Nevertheless, this is his solo debut LP. The whole thing is very ‘clean’ sounding, with a crispness to the beats. But it also betrays a dub past through its extensive sub-bass, used to great effect on Keep Your Head High. The title track is a dnb slowie with a soaring vocal from Estel Luz. This track really shows its teeth in the more urgent, non-album VIP version. Tracks like Uneasy have a welcome darkness which offsets the lighter stuff like Upon Waves.
ARP XP – Closer (survival Jungle VIP)
ARP XP – Closer LP (clips)
Blurb: Born from a common will to showcase the maturity and versatility of his producer skills, IM:Ltd has taken the ambitious challenge to give to the extremely talented ARP XP the opportunity to release his first ever solo album effort ‘Closer’. Gathering influences from over ten years spent in the electronic music scene, what we’re presenting is an accomplished twelve-track album with the finesse you’d come to expect from the Sardinian Sun & Bass resident…and some more intriguing touches you might not. From the eerie dystopia of title track “Closer” featuring the mournful vocals of Estel Luz, it’s clear that none of this release is concerned with brightening wintery nights. Each track has a vein of inky blackness running through it, and whether it’s the clicking, mechanical metronome of standout single “Something Wrong”, the serpentine bass of “Sickness of Time” or the somewhat middle-eastern-infused bassy stomp of “Maybe Tomorrow” with that juddering electro clap, the first half of “Closer” is deeper and darker than the Baltic.
Even with tracks as forcefully dank and derelict as “Papercuts” there are washes of tunes like “Uneasy”, Stunna’s re-work of “Closer” and the particularly exquisite “Upon Waves” to counterpoint the gloom, showing some break in the clouds. You can’t stamp the sunshine out of a Mediterranean heart. Trademark rolling reeses and distant euphoric pads belie, “Closer”’s cynical sound gives away Arp XP’s true intention – to simply make the best bass music album he can.
Watch “Closer” official video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jwFvRiEqw4
Order your CD copy from Triple Vision:
http://www.triplevision.nl/release/IMLTDCD02/
Buy the digital release on Beatport :
http://www.beatport.com/release/closer/919132
Buy the digital release on Juno Download :
http://www.junodownload.com/products/closer/1975111-02/
