British-Italian producer DRIFT. returns with evocative new track ‘Red Lights’.
The producer blurs the lines between techno-enabled pop and DIY culture, with staunchly independent roots allowing DRIFT. to move between genre lines. A flurry of EPs caught attention, before 2020 debut album ‘Symbiosis’ was released to word of mouth acclaim.
Available via Hamburg’s ever-essential Tapete Records, this project was followed by the self-released 2022 soundscape ‘The nature of things’, a 30-minute piece constructed for designer Mona Cordes’ Cellusion show for London Fashion Week.
New album ’11 Points In Time’ was released a few days ago, and it’s another startling piece of work presenting an artist capable of breaking open standard ways of working to unleash fresh modes of invention.
Written for and based on disappeared artist Rosi Crucci, the new album melds together field recordings, psychedelic aspects, and glo-fi electronics. A probing song cycle that feels deeply idiosyncratic, one song immediately leaped to our attention: ‘Red Lights’.
A bubbling piece of post-punk indebted electronics, it’s reminiscent of those early Cabaret Voltaire experiments in its twinkling, after-hours atmosphere. As it turns out, the song is a cover – tackling a key text from cult Scottish-Italian artist Luca Prodan.
Here’s DRIFT. with the full story…
In the 70s there was a Scottish/Italian songwriter who was affiliated with the punk scene and worked at the first Virgin store in Piccadilly Circus which exposed him to all the great underground and mainstream music around at the time. he fell into hard times with drugs and being the true free spirit he was couldn’t cope with the blinkered European way of life. This person was Luca Prodan.
He eventually, to save himself, moved to a remote location in Argentina with the idea of become a cattle farmer but when he got there instead of following his plan he bought a drum machine and a delay box and single handedly changed the landscape of Argentine music with all the new influences he smuggled into a tuppawear dictatorship culture.
SUMO was born, the first post-punk Argentine band. I’ve been enthralled by his music since the first time I’ve heard it and red lights was one of his early demos taken from his first solo record ‘Perdedores Hermosos’ (Beautiful Losers) which I intended to give the SUMO treatment.
This song is so poignant to me because the same forces which drove him away from his native continent still apply now more than ever. It’s a song about the power of the human spirit to counteract those evil forces. It’s a gesture of gratitude to all he gave and his inspiration and by releasing this song here in the UK feels like completing some sort of circle.
A beautiful piece of music, you can check out ‘Red Lights’ below.
DRIFT. plays live this coming weekend – catch her at Green Alley Studios in East London, E2 9RA, on October 28th.
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