Catena

Lerosa’s fourth full-length, Catena, is also his second for Berlin-via-LA label Acid Test. It sees the Dublin-based producer once again draw deeply on his diverse influences – dub, industrial, electro, trance, funk, IDM – and transform them into a sound signature that has always been uniquely his own. This alchemy is no accident. Rather it is driven by Lerosa’s ongoing pursuit of the fundamental meaning of dance music: to immerse ourselves in sound to the point where our only desire is to move and feel in the moment. Hence how, on Catena, the slow and sensual sway of a cavernous bit of dub can sit side-by-side with hands-up trance-like ecstasy, and all still sound like Lerosa. This achievement is the result of a dedicated daily studio practice. Each track starts from a dynamic studio jam in which Lerosa plays drum machines and synthesisers live and then overdubs them with further modulated layers. He uses looping techniques to build up the density of certain instruments while mixing the layers on-the-fly, using something as unassuming as an iPad. This imbues each track with a spontaneous shifting quality that defines the entire album. What comes through is a sound that speaks of Lerosa’s love for the studio, for the tangible substance of an audio frequency – analogue and digital, raw and processed, pure and saturated – and the intangible, indeed bewitching mystery of how these frequencies can transport us to other places. Accompanying the cassette album of Lerosa’s fourth full-length, Catena, this heavyweight 12” features two originals from the album and two remixes from familiar faces: childhood friend Donato Dozzy and long-time fellow traveller Jordan GCZ (of Juju & Jordash). Album closer ‘Suite De Paris’ places pitch-bent liquid acid over a huge skanking bassline, the perfect material for Dozzy to make hay with his simmering techno take. Meanwhile, album opener ‘Apollo’ churns with industrial fervour, before Jordan GCZ reduces it down to its acid techno essence, leaving little space for us to catch our breath.