donato dozzy: k

Few artists have crafted a catalog as rich and deep as Donato Dozzy has done in minimal techno's more atmospheric realm. The Italian producer -- who also performs in the excellent Voices From The Lake duo with Neel -- has become revered for his unerring ability to create tracks that are at once ethereal and oceanic, inducing both a sense of tranquility and urgency. His debut album, K, which Further Records originally issued in 2010, stands as a towering example of Dozzy's skill for electronic music that triggers profound feelings with only a few scrupulously-selected elements. K's seven tracks offer a masterly seminar in subtly altering the grid-like beat programming that dominates techno. Dozzy puts odd emphases on certain beats and adds percussive eccentricities and effects to others. Which means that this isn't a collection of bangers geared for hands-in-the-air, goofball moves. Instead, Dozzy's working on a much more refined level, one where tricky, intricate drum patterns trump simple booming kicks -- although "K3"'s staunch, methodically funky kick and hi-hat pattern and "K5"'s swift and elegantly propulsive beats could heat up a club. The greatest pleasures of K occur in the way Dozzy's eerie, aquatic drones swirl around his well-wrought rhythms, submerging everything in a restorative, algae-tinged film. At their best, these pieces convey a Chain Reaction-like rigor and a cinematic quality (of the Jacques Cousteau variety) utterly devoid of cliché. This reissue of K reminds us that it remains a crucial component of Donato Dozzy's catalog, the first major statement in a career that's becoming a manifesto of understated, underground-techno brilliance.