Populist

Not Waving - Populist EP [E026] • Not Waving recoils back to his Ecstatic label after an ace LP + 12”s for Diagonal • Four tracks flirting with sleazy New Beat, nEuro EBM, Acid n0!se and deep-raved Italo • Edition of 500 copies, initial 200 pressed up on coloured vinyl. Housed in fluoro green/hot red jacket • Mastered and cut by Matt Colton @ Alchemy Not Waving takes 2017 by the scruff with his Populist EP, consolidating the myriad stripes of his acclaimed Animals album in four peaktime hammers forged for darkrooms, basements and warehouses alike. If last year’s LP saw you thru from day-into-night, or vice-versa, this one is aimed squarely at the gurny hours of abandon in between, with ferocious acid lines and jabbing drums stripped down and strapped up to prompt reckless behaviour on the ‘floor. Containing his first material written in the wake of Animals, the Populist EP is Alessio Natalizia a.k.a. Not Waving’s strongest dancefloor statement since the 1-sided Get Serious (2015) bullet. It finds him taking the opportunity to make straight-up bangers, rather than ‘songs’, which were thoroughly tried and tested over successive tours of the USA and countless shows in Europe too in the last 9 months. Too Many Freaks is an anthem in waiting, harnessing a barely-hinged sense of chaos between its careening synth lead, acid squabble and velvet-clad kicks, before the dry-rutting jag and plaintive vox of Vibe Killer takes a dog-grip like This Heat meeting Tuning Circuits. Top marks go to the check-your-stylus intro for Control Myself on the B-side, which holds its fizzy line into a fetid crevice of what sounds Russell Haswell ramping with Powell, whereas the crooked clampjaw groove of Ur Lucky Ur Still Alive pivots around a sample of a lone raver at Atonal, Berlin “who had no idea how she got there and what she did the night before”. A ruddy good night all-round, then? Alessio Natalizia a.k.a. Not Waving co-owns the Ecstatic label alongside Sam Willis. Not Waving is widely regarded a connoisseur of Italian new wave and post-punk music - he compiled the Mutazione (Italian Electronic & New Wave Underground 1980-1988) set for Strut - and has issued a series of acclaimed, sought-after, playfully anachronistic twists on that sound since 2013.