In the world of Italian techno music, the first name that comes to mind is Marco Carola. In the past few years however, Neapolitan DJ/producer Joseph Capriati has quickly joined Mr. Carola in the stratosphere as Italy’s go-to techno ambassadors. Of recent note, Capriati has been a pivotal part of the Carola’s famed Music On residency at Amnesia Ibiza. This party has been ranked as one of the finest in the world mostly because of the energetic, marathon sets served up by the likes of Marco Carola, Capriati, Re-Up, Pan-Pot, Carl Cox, Nic Fanciulli, Guti, and many others over the course of the Balearic summer. It’s easy to understand why Mr. Carpriati deserves mention among the best names in techno after you’ve taken time to properly digest the tracks on his LP release “Self Portrait” that dropped Monday on Adam Beyer’s venerable Drumcode imprint.
This is an eleven track LP of energetic, creative techno bookended by downtempo tracks that should provide the listener with a sense of Capriati’s diverse production abilities. I welcome the change of pace featured in the first track “Electrolytic” and the final track that shares the album title, “Self Portrait”. Sometimes its difficult to trudge through such intense music in one sitting and the most rabid of techno purists might crucify me for even suggesting this, but both the first and final tracks of the LP are good punctuation marks for the meatier parts of the LP. They are a bit extraneous given the context of the entire release, but I think they add a needed splash of diversity to the track list. Probably my favorite track on the release comes second in line, it’s called “Easy Come Easy Go” and it combines the stark, bad ass-ness of a techno track with some squelchy minimal quirk, and the result is nothing less than spectacular. I love the weirdness offered up by tracks like this and I think it is much needed in the world of techno and especially tech-house, which has taken a beating recently for how mundane the music has become in it’s many and increasingly popular forms. Props to Capriati for getting weird with it and breaking the mold of what many have come to loathe. Continuing along in the spirit of weirdness, we arrive at our next highlight called “Deep Thoughts”, a spacey, minimal journey that eases into provocative melody and atmospherics. As we move a bit further down the track list, you will notice the sounds evolve to occupy the realm of big room techno, and they do so deftly. I particularly enjoy “Awake” and “Basic Elements” because they exude the peak time club vibe to near perfection. As we near the end, the glossy synths of “Fratello” give way to the downtempo punctuation of “Self Portrait”. I really enjoyed how the Capriati was able to bring down the intensity in this series of tracks to reach a logical endpoint. Overall, “Self Portrait” is very much worth your time and money so please support the artist and buy the release. “Self Portrait” should serve the DJ and casual listener well to provide tracks for varying moods and the sampling of tracks below (in addition to a recent set, also included) should give you a proper sense of this. Enjoy.
Joseph Capriati – Easy Come Easy Go (Original Mix)
Joseph Capriati – Deep Thoughts (Original Mix)
Joseph Capriati – Awake (Original Mix)
Joseph Capriati – Fratello (Original Mix)
Joseph Capriati – Self Portrait (Original Mix)
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