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Crafted their sonic creations in a studio that practically sits in the shadow of the infamous Mt. Vesuvius, Retina's Lino Monaco and Nicola Buono are likely the first electronic artists from Pompeii, Italy to come to the attention of the world at large. Despite living and recording in such relative isolation, the duo appear to have distilled a wide range of influences to create their own take on abstract electronica. The eight tracks on their debut album are peppered with elements of minimal tech-house, watery glitch-dub, robotic IDM and droning ambience, resulting in a disc that at times feels more like a compilation of new school electronic producers rather than the work of a single group. But even with this air of eclecticism, Volcano Waves 1-8 still retains a sense of flow and aural harmony from track to track. Not a groundbreaking effort to be sure, but still a strong and pleasant set of work.

QOOB TV

Una cura ossessiva verso la qualità del suono e la lunghezza d’onda quella che Lino Monaco e Nicola Buono, alias Retina.it, riservano al loro primogenito “Volcano.waves.1-8”, per Hefty Records (la stessa dei Telefon Tel Aviv, per intenderci). Il lavoro è imperniato sulla ricerca esasperata del giusto equilibrio fra techno, ambient e sperimentazione, senza mai allontanarsi troppo da un certo melodismo italico. Il concetto fondante è difatti quello del fuoco lavico, perfetta simbiosi fra metalli e gas, dove le caratteristiche intrinseche d’ogni elemento della tavola periodica si sposano tra loro forgiando un unico fiume magmatico. Le otto onde vulcaniche, “Agni”, “Plinius observer”, “Camera magmatica”, “Our lady of mystery”, “Lander”, “Piroclastic flux”, “Insekt” e “Obsidian”, vanno rincorrendosi su sentieri tecnologici d’avanguardia, fra bassi molto bassi e kick in evoluzione, fx complicati ed intrecci vst senza eguali. Tra l’altro, se si va a studiare attentamente la forma delle frequenze, ci accorgiamo che spesso e volentieri non c’è simmetria, ovvero le fasi si trovano spesso invertite rispetto alla convenzione.

ALMOST COOL

One of the beauties of electronic music is that it opens up the sonic palette beyond what most people would consider music and allows those elements to become yet another part of music today. While that sometimes means that you hear some just downright awful music (and believe me, I have), it also makes for some combinations that you just wouldn't hear otherwise. One of these strange combinations is played with in several different ways on this new release by Retina, and fortunately they don't manage to fall into the "annoying as hell" category by doing so.

The tonal range of electronic music will hit you square in the inner ear when the first track, "Agni" starts. A series of super high pitch tones ring out to start things, sending dogs barking and you scrambling for the volume knob if you have things turned up too loud. After awhile, though, the group blends in some lower end pulses until the track builds into an off-kilter rhythm track with weird orchestral bursts and other odd noises. Although it's interesting, the second track "Plinius Observer" is much more effective at combining the two elements, mixing a very cool groove (although it takes awhile to develop) with some more of the high-pitched tones.

On "Camera Magmatica," the group moves the track along with a molasses-thick quagmire of a bass pulse that sounds like a washing machine dryer spinning down with too many clothes inside it in the next room. Steadily, they add little bits of clicks and clacks and squeaks, but the track still feels bottom-heavy with the lumbering grumble. "Piroclastic Flux" sounds like it's going to be nothing more than a weird collection of glitchy blips until a dancefloor pounding beat comes in and manages to tie the whole damn thing together. The group close out the release in the same banging fashion, too. The seventh track of "Insekt" slams along with a chunky beat and ringing hi-hat while odd elements filter in and out of the long track (making it almost sound like something that could have come out during the Plus 8 heyday a couple years back) and the album closer of "Obsidian" steadily adds mechanical sounding elements to the machine-like tromping beat. By the end, it sounds like music that might accompany a nightmare of running through a forest and being chased by something rather sinister.

If the Clicks And Cuts compilation (actually, either of them) made you get all in a tizzy about low end rumbles combined with little bits of spat-out data, the tracks early on in the disc will probably be right up your alley. Later on in the release when things get a little more beat-driven, the group seems to lose a little bit of their focus and especially rhythmically the tracks simply aren't as interesting. The release as a whole has a bit of a darker feel to it, but there are also some interesting things to be found. Not essential, but interesting. Rating: 6.5

ALL MUSIC GUIDE

Besides the duo's musical influences from classic {\experimental} bands like Einsturzende Neubauten and Clock DVA, Retina's chief inspiration for Volcano Waves comes from (strangely enough) a volcano. And, in a way, this could easily be a soundtrack for the Vesuvio volcano in Pompeii, Italy, where Retina resides and records. Spooky tones flow like lava, low-end bass rumbles, and beats erupt. Most of this improvised (and later edited) material is repetitive and often extends past five minutes, creating persistent textures that cool down before they have a chance to really heat up.

PITCHFORKMEDIA

The very first sounds on Volcano Waves 1-8 drip rapidly and unexpectedly from the speaker, attempting a Chinese acrobat-style balance on the line between pleasant and painful. It sounds at once familiar and menacingly alien. A circling sequence-- of chimy notes that slice like aural paper cuts, and are tweaked just short of dog-whistle pitch-- forms a piercing, trebly melody. A cyborgan heartbeat joins in immediately after, pulsing out a steady a-sharp. This first track, "Agni," issues these thinly veiled threats until, around the fourth minute, another track of discordant keyboard samples and reverbed factory sounds join in to create a decidedly uncomfortable dance-din. Following on its tail, "Plinus Observer" plays good cop to the opener's bad. A bassy keyboard line injects warmth into the harried air even while insect-meets-shortwave-radio sounds keeps things from actually becoming pleasant.

"Camera Magmatica" begins with what sounds like air-raid sirens dropped four octaves, while scratchy blips and bwooop-bwooop sounds form subtle, if psychotic melodic lines. Crackling sounds fill the foreground as the dropped alarm sounds bwooop on. You have the sudden urge to evacuate the premise.

But let's get to who's responsible for this stuff. Retina is the collaborative project of two DJs from Pompeii, Italy. Yes, really: Pompeii, Italy. The cover art, as you can see, makes no attempt to hide that fact, depicting Mt. Vesuvius, Roman ruins, and what I'm guessing is the ash-preserved mummy of some unlucky blast-era resident. The back of the case even features a Roman bust and an amphitheater! So, what's the connection between the Pompeii's sooty, age-old history and electronica? Well, you know the Romans used to say "in blip, Verite."

Actually, both these guys, Lino Monaco and Nicola Buono, grew up working in family businesses that catered to tourists, all the while making frequent forays to Naples record stores to satisfy their passions for New Wave rock and roll. Soon thereafter, they became interested in DJing and electronic music, availed themselves of some analog sequencers and computer software, and the rest is ancient history.

The duo's methodology consists of improvising material in DAT format, later transferring it to computer for editing. I can't say I can sense the improvisatory elements of their music, but the fact alone is quite interesting. Some pieces do sound more warm, and thus "played" as opposed to "composed," than others. The fifth track, "Lander," features some nice rubber band-sort of noises which almost sound like singing. A subtle keyboard playing howling wind noises provides a nice-counterpoint to the rubber bands.

Cuesto no e my cup of tea but it's certainly intriguing. "Piroclastic Flux," the sixth episode, warms up even more. An ascending keyboard part repeats while whirring noises seem to talk from the right speaker. "Insekt" the appropriately titled penultimate track brings back the frenzied tension missing since the opener. Again, we have a stark separation between bassy frequencies of keyboard and pitter-patter, and the multiplicity of trebly, metallic voices jockeying for attention in the foreground. A house-style keyboard part joins in at the three-minute mark, making "Insekt" the most overtly dancy of the tracks.

"Obsidian" the mysteriously evocative closer features a spoon-on-copper-bowl metallic beat and what sounds like a twin-engine airplane circle overhead. Electro-crickets join in no time, rubbing their legs together in perverse imitation of the everyone's favorite bucolic night-time sound. But while this is the most relaxed and relaxing of the eight, it's still fraught with tension and foreboding. Maybe that's what you feel when you live under the shadow of a volcano, who knows? Someone, hurry, play me a fuckin' guitar chord.

BOOMKAT

Retina is an avante-electronic-experimental-noise project that explores the boundries of digital music. Lino Monaco and Nicola Buono of Retina began making music as the Qmen in 1994, one of the first performing electronic groups of their kind in Pompeii, Italy. Lino explains that, 'the Pompeii volcano is a huge example of the natural energy ready to explode here. The people here have great energy, but because of the poor economic situation and cultural struggles, they can't turn it into positive activity'. He elaborates that he has 'a great fascination in the historic area', in which they work, 'which has a big influence on our experimental activity'. Retina's studio exists beside the ancient city of Pompeii, the city that was buried under the Vesuvio volcano 2000 years ago. They perform and improvise all of their material to DAT which is later transferred to the computer and re-edited

KATAWEB

I musicisti italiani che frequentano i territori della dance più sperimentale stanno ricevendo all?estero consensi decisamente lusinghieri. Un esempio recente: i romani Jolly Music. Non sembra così strano, allora, che due musicisti di Pompei, Lino Monaco e Nicola Buono, titolari del progetto Retina dal 1994, si vedano pubblicare l'album d'esordio dalla Hefty, etichetta di Chicago in forte ascesa presso cui sono accasati, tra gli altri, gli Aluminium Group. Le otto "onde vulcaniche" contengono un mix di techno astratta e minimali scenari ambient. Anzi, pensandoci bene è proprio la lava, visto anche il titolo, la metafora più appropriata per descrivere la musica dei due. Che è sì scarna ed essenziale, ma sfocia in flussi sonori continui e grumosi, impasti avvolgenti e quasi organici. Alcuni momenti, come Insekt, sono squisitamente percussivi, altri lasciano spazio a striature sonore più variegate: Plinius Observer è costruita su un arpeggio di tastiera dai riverberi ancestrali, che si addentra in un paesaggio inospitale di spigoli sonori, scricchiolii e crepitii vari. Ma il ritmo, minimale, resta comunque la cifra stilistica dell?intero lavoro: il funk alieno di Lander e il pulsare liquido di Piroflastic Flux coniugano al meglio elementi meccanici e organici. Come se questi ultimi, sorpresi da un'eruzione, si fossero fusi con macchinari e circuiti al silicio. L'esperimento dei Retina è più che riuscito. Attendiamo fiduciosi il seguito di queste "volcano waves".

MUSIC EMISSION

As Volcano Waves opening track seeps in with it’s high pitch rhythmic ting, you start to realize what your in for with this Italian IDM duo. Retina consists of Lino Monaco and Nicola Buono and they state that Volcano Waves was actually written with the Pompeii volcano in sight. You will sense the feeling of the surging and the lava flow with a few listens to this Retina album. Retina’s actual studio is located beside the ancient city of Pompeii that was historically buried under it’s warm lava flow. As the opening track “Agni” gets rolling you will feel your head bobbing but you won’t really know why. Not sure if it is the high pitch ting or the driving techno samples, but you know it’s good. “Plinius Observer” gets rolling with an almost oriental feeling but you will soon realize that the sounds are all fabricated using Retina’s high tech equipment. On “Camera Magmatica” the sample keeping the rhythm is a deep sonic sound that sounds like it’s actually bubbling through a layer of lava. Then another high pitch sound enters their desired mix. Retina succeeds through and through with giving the listener sonic landscapes to view volcano’s to.