Talking about the Bergamo based power-duo Public Domain Resource it means highlighting the compositional validity and talent of the new Italian avant-garde music: the project, initially founded in 2012 by Pietro Oliveri (music/synths/programming/vox) as a solo-act, began its way in the same year through the freelance single “Under The Ground” which soon placed at the third position of the Soundclick.com’s portal called Industrial Music Chart.
This release was the precursor of two other self-released singles even more fortunate: “Nemesis-The Third Day” that reached in 2012 the second place into the IDM Chart, followed in 2013 by “The Hang”, a track appeared again on the Soundclick.com’s selection as well as in the first place of the mentioned IDM Chart. After this great starting, Public Domain Resource completed, always in the year 2013, its evolution by three key events: the first was the entry into line-up of the vocalist Ugo Crescini, he too like Pietro coming from spent musical experiences developed in the 80’s, with whom the project strengthened the sound tactics and also its own identity, perfecting a composite style which included particular electro, EBM , IDM and synthpopish elements, all this until theattainment of a second goal, the important recruitment by the independent Italian label Space Race Records by which they realized their third objective, or the publication of this debut-album “Dead Surface” now treated by Vox Empirea.
The full-length, available in digipak format, contains fifteen tracks including the three singles mentioned above and it justly aspire to the loyalty of an increasing number of alternative-electro listeners, polarizing their attention on a musical technology actually able to entertain and make dance the masses using sounds genetically evolved and voice strategies often inspired by futurism. “Ideals”, the first episode of the tracklist, is indeed a brilliant electro-future/synthpop and EBM shaded, whose structure, built by enthralling drum-beats, circular hatches of programming, keyboard’s acidifications and a well-modulated singing, promises moments of true listening pleasure, while the following “Red Lines”, by decelerating the rhythmical speed, it creates an atmospherical set of electronic frequencies arising by the obsessive metric calculated by sequencing and by the alienating transversality of synthesizer, a sound register made even more impressive by the singer’s filtered tones and by a telephone-spoken sampling voiced in Russian. “Under The Ground” predisposes a futuristic technopop-EBM module into which it stands an android chant precisely inserted between the mechanical midtempo drum-programming, sounds that catch the senses together with the equally futuristic synth melodies. The homonymous “Dead Surface” begins propagating a captivating key-programming intro followed shortly by vocals dictated by inanimate shade, formulas that are flanked by the cyclic motion of the midtempo drum-machines, by the greve touches of a reverbered piano and by an estranging voice, all this in a well-engineered track that offers a vast selection of inspirations which, considering their exceptionality and if they properly processed by a good remixer who may especially strengthening the rhythmic partitures, it would possess all the features for creating a floorfiller dancefloor-remix. The percussive dynamism generated by “Fiat Lux” settles midtempo, rolled beats, following the linearity of programming and of the key replications revealing, as well as an electro structure, EBM tonings combined by with repetitive vox modulations, while the following “Negative Fields” propagates waves of pure tehnologic-energy for the maximum danceability, all this created by the symmetrical propulsion of midtempo drumming, an element of fundamental importance, further boosted by pulsing turbo-basses and made more attractive by the joint between robotic-vox, whispers and spoken words, sonic geometries prepared on a fascinating background of synth evolutions and sequencing segments. The percussive scheme of “Always Prey For Them-The Reich’s Station” transmits impure scans which midtempo regulation, together with the programming fixity, with the essential synth’s harmonies and with the melodic coldness of the chant, finalize a danceable electro-device very suitable for the alternative dancefloors, as well as the subsequent “Nemesis-The Third Day” canalises cyber-voice propagations internally the futuristic syntheticism generated by equipments made up by the pneumatic midtempo thrusts of drum-programming and by the metallic key flows. “San Mishima” slows down the bpm’s originating a downtempo track in which they articulate mechanically the drum machine beats, the cyclical of sequencing and the filtered alien voice. The electro/EBM dictates covered by Public Domain Resource continue forging now “Your Blood Is Mine”, a song enlivened by percussive midtempo incitements and by the iridescent synth chords that towering over the uniform vocal concatenation, while the beautiful intro section of “The Hang”, composed by ethereal pads and by programmed streams, evolves into a midtempo future-electro automated with precision by drum-machine, embellished by synth fluorescences and entered into a cosmic dimension by a melodiously opened chant.
The metallized tones and the metronomic gait belonging to the drumming of “The Second Day” hypnotize outlining replications on which the vocalist erects a slightly soured chant by filters, connecting it to the hatching fluid of sequencing and the coldness of synth expansions. The TourdeForce, excellent electronic-act from Bergamo conceived by its frontman Christian Ryder, remixes “Red Lines” increasing its percussive speed enriching the sound structures by fascinating dance-minded technicalities and arrangements that transform the original track in a valid title for the playlist of electro-alternative D.J.’s.
The reworking of “Under The Ground”, performed by the Washingtonian DC electronic-band named Retrogramme, offers an amazing combination of very danceable formulas and sonic-space reinforcements, with the introduction of an electric guitar, rhythmical fractures, of more clarity in the programming line, of artificial expansions and echoed synth solos. The closing chapter is the Magnetic Fields edit version of “San Mishima” that transfigures the slow song into an electronic ride constantly eroded by the corrosiveness of key’s winds and rhythmed by icy currents arising by the drum-programming. Realization from which they emerge compositional stylemes elaborated and developed with efficiency, the album “Dead Surface” is synonymous of ultra-modern dance, intelligence and of a disciplined/technological inner training, energized from the best school of Electronic Music. Inside the debut full-length the two protagonists play their respective roles in reciprocal sintony and with impeccable methods, distilling a musical compendium full of “future dancing” atmospheres separated out from all obviousness and perfecting a tracklist that will interest all enthusiasts of highly advanced sonorities.
Public Domain Resource: a project destined to become in time a kind of reference for all those who consider the listening of electro-sound an imperative need.