Almost a decade after its first release, Bologna-based, Italian electronic music producer Davide Nicosia, a.k.a. Acid Youth returns on MFZ Records with the album “Darkness Is Not Easy”. This new work is the result of years of research and refinement in defining an aesthetic that merges the acid imagery with the song form and melody.
Alongside the usual suspects (808, 303, analog and digital synthesizers), new acoustic and electric elements (drums, guitar, bass) are introduced. The result of this mix is a personal reinterpretation of the sounds from the ‘90s alternative music scene. The rhythmic precision of the synthetic elements guides melodic structures characterized by human imperfections. Fuzz guitars go with the acid lines of the 303, while drums mix up with the analog percussions of the 808.
On “Darkness Is Not Easy“, tracks blend Techno atmospheres, Shoegaze moods, Acid Psychedelia and Drone expansions. The album is a musical journey accessible to anyone who doesn’t particularly care about strict boundaries between musical genres; a path to be taken without preconceived notions or bias of any kind.
WL//WH is pleased to premiere “Stress Points” and “Orange Juice”, tracks four and five from the upcoming full-length.
In a somehow groovy, hypnotic and unsettling way, the acid-laced “Stress Points” challenges and splices the tension between raw natural vibes and cold synthetic configurations, to spin shuffling, at times crisp, percussive patterns that unremittingly punctuate an insistent call and response of organic ominously bulky bass throbs with resonant burbling acid lines, set against an interpolation of icy hopeless sweeping strings and alienating fluctuating resonances, raining sparkles of foreboding warning.
A further immersive exploration of the liminal space between the organic and the synthetic sound, “Orange Juice” sneakingly sways, through the consistent drive of plodding drum beats, on the brooding, sonorous vibrations of post-punk-like, scratchy bass throbs, surrounded by swirling, piercing strains, whirring frequencies, and subtly gritty acidic gurgles, to bring forth hints of doom and desolation, with the edges smoothed off by daring trippy slants.
Acid Youth‘s upcoming album, “Darkness Is Not Easy,” is scheduled to be released, in Cassette & Digital formats, via MFZ Records on October 25, 2024.
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