CLEVELAND レコード& CD

Review: Having spent many a year drifting around labels like ESP Institute, Batti Batti and Hivern Discs, Cleveland's Andrea Mancini has more recently found a steady, reliable home with Kalahari Oyster Cult. Delivering his third EP for the label, Mancini is comfortably continuing the trend of exploratory rhythms with a discernible groove, a healthy dose of tempo agnosticism and all kinds of sonic surprises. 'Tempo Oro' is a beautiful, patient EP opener which seems primed for those hazy, early afternoon outdoor festival sets when the dappled sun creeps through a canopy of trees. 'Rand' is a much more nocturnal creature riding on a 2-step beat and revelling in dynamic pings and pongs. 'Pryd' heads further up the scale with some taut broken techno for the 130 crew and then 'Mano' delivers some of the minimalist techno-trance surrealism you might well find on amenthia and other such labels.

Review: Brussels' Cleveland has made a name for himself with excellent, left of centre drops on ESP Institute, Hivern Discs and others in the past. Now he's up on Kalahari Oyster Cult with more adventurous freakery that deals in outsider grooves and playful synth acrobatics that positively demand your attention. "Gamma" comes on with a steady broken beat that carries some wild lead hooks that show off Cleveland's confidence with his kit. "Ora" is equally marked out by dazzling analogue brushstrokes and expertly crafted percussion to send body and mind whirling. Then on the flip Piezo and Beta Librae both remix "Gamma", veering from tough, bass-led drum funk to cosmic incantations respectively.

Review: After a 2018 dalliance with ESP Institute, Andrea Mancini AKA Cleveland returns to John Talabot's Hivern Discs imprint with his most expansive and ambitious release to date. Stretched across two discs, the tracks that make up "nDSi" are notably more starry and spaced-out in approach than some of the Brussels-based producer's previous releases. There's much to admire from start to finish, from the sci-fi electro shuffle of "Polar" and deep space techno bliss of "Noord", to the sparse analogue notes and off-kilter IDM rhythms of "6IX". Other highlights include the breezy, Space Dimension Controller style ambient techno of "Govlin" and the broken computer vibes of bleeping closing cut "NDSi".

Review: Following up 2016's Kyoto EP on ESP Institute, here is the return of Cleveland. Interestingly enough he's not from the midwest USA but in-fact from Luxembourg (with Italian roots) and based in Brussels. His music isn't nearly as confusing though; on the contrary "Tusk" simply sounds like 'oriental electro' (if we've heard such a thing) even more than Japanese Telecom would. B side cut "Aku" equally borrows from Detroit bass aesthetics, yet crosses over into minimal techno - albeit unintentionally we assume - grooving much like current sounds of the Berlin underground as heard on labels like Time Passages or Libertine. A.E. Mancini has released previously on other fine imprints such as Hivern Discs and Oskar Offermann's White.