Supersimmetria – Materia

Men are made of water, proteins, vitamins, chemical elements and more. Kosmogonie, Supersimmetria’s previous album released by Hands Productions, focused on astronomy and stars. Materia, released by the same German label, focuses on techno matter itself, that thought, assembled and produced by the Italian producer Armando Alibrandi.

Materia could be considered a sort of concept album focused on his techno formula. Highly refined beats, smart complex layers of distortions, a sometimes dark mood, a bit of melody and some industrial-derived sounds. This means that, while in Kosmogonie each song was linked by a common atmosphere, his new album has eleven very different songs (plus two remixes) not necessarily sharing the same sounds and the same elements. Forget the experimental and out-of-bounds elements of his previous work. Materia goes straight to the point from start to end. Drake Equation starts with a kind of raining sound, showing an increased research of sounds and beats, more refined than in the past. It is the result of several hours spent on the research for the right sound. Extraterrestrial synths are a perfect choice, considering this song “asks itself” how many active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations exist in the Milky Way galaxy.

Vibrating Particles is another clear example of his research. The production is very clear, his beats are solid yet refined, industrial-derived sounds can be perceived (they remind us of his previous works) with a clear dark techno mood permeating the whole song. The following track Rotational Symmetry chooses more tribal beats, which are perfectly merged with his synth lines and his morse codes-like inputs, while Abiogenesis introduces for the first time melody used as the main element of one of his songs, which is something new and well-made, slightly influenced by trance music. Unobservable Matter is a refined techno ride with slight distorted sounds and a gentle beat while Supercluster is another more melodic song in which the melody is drawn well by the synth. Supersimmetria’s deeper techno comes back in the second half of the album, with the abrasive Quantum Fluctuation and Angular Momentum.

The final song, Hadean, follows what shown in the previous Kosmogonie, while the two remixes break the techno flow. The Chinese producer Zaliva-D, an artist discovered some years ago by Armando, offers a psychedelic, slower and more abrasive reinterpretation of a dark and linear techno ride, while Quantum Fluctuations is remixed by the Japanese Tomohiko Sagae (who will play at the next edition of Forms of Hands), transformed into a fast rhythmic industrial ride with a techno beat, definitely the most energetic song of the album and a perfect closure.

It can be surely said that with this release Armando Alibrandi has shown a larger spectrum of ideas than in the past, ranging from more melodic-focused songs to more solid dark techno rides and more out-of-bounds remixes. Supersimmetria’s techno is always gentle, refined and introspective even when it’s more powerful and distortions emerge. Maybe Armando left behind some industrial dry sounds in order to focus on building purely techno songs with personality, although the fan will surely recognize his typical trademarks. On stage his music becomes a sort of long journey, an elecronic flow made of deep ever changing beats and spacey atmospheres (less than in the past anyway). All of this is part of the evolution of an artist never producing the same album twice.