Gui Boratto--Chromophobia

With hordes of fans and Kompakt Distribution kissing his feet, Sao Paulo releases his first full-length: Chromophobia. The Brazilian – under the guise Gui Boratto – has been producing for over 10 years, working with such acts as Pato Banton, Steel Pulse, Mano Choa, and Desiree. His long stream of singles has built up quite an expectation for this full-length, and he effectively lives up to them. Chromophobia is a healthy blend of many electronic influences, including dance, house, and pop—providing a fascinatingly diverse range of sounds often lacking in full-length techno albums.

Boratto includes the tracks you would come to expect to blast out of your speakers. Tracks like "Terminal," "The Blessing," and "Shebang" contain well-mixed dancefloor beats and the standard blips and beeps dancing around the foundation of bass. However, Paulo throws in some different sorts of tricks you may not have been expecting.

"Acrostico" is much more on the pop-side of the spectrum, with less-emphasis on the driving bass-beat and more on wonderful melodies in a slew of sounds that could easily make its way into an indie-rock playlist. Further capitalizing on this style is "Beautiful Life," which adds more pop-effects and even ambient vocals to a pulled-back pulse. In addition, "Mala Strana" is a complete departure from the ever-driving dancefloor tunes found in "The Blessing." Here is ethereal worlds, where the listener is invited to drift amongst the ambient landscapes like some distant dream.

"Hera" moves back towards the dancefloor, incorporating more of a bass-beat but still staying very much pop (think VNV Nation). These tracks, the ones that incorporate the bass of the dancefloor with the ambient sounds of another world, are the ones where Gui Boratto truly shines. The more traditional dancefloor tunes are frankly nothing out of the ordinary, and while the ambient tracks are beautiful they tend to have little dynamic and are less engaging.

"Beautiful Life" and its like are the happy medium, throwing a monkey wrench into the old techno-beat game without completely disrupting the machine. All in the all though, the machine Gui Boratto has created is dynamic, with changing styles and diverse influences. From one spectrum to the other, Boratto masters the art and creates an album that refuses to let your attention go.

(Published at 365MAG.com)