Donato Dozzy – Filo Loves The Acid

Repress now available via preorder through Tresor Bandcamp, available from 23-01-2023.

After listening the entire album twice, I got the impression, he provided way better stories before.
It's a cool style of hardcore acid techno with common oldschoolish vibes and an own signature sound - These are vital DJ weapons; simple-mixing traxx... but.. his characteristic psych. deepness is missing.

Personally, I think it is a brilliant idea to combine legends in order to commemorate Tresor's epochal 3-0-3 release. As the title might suggest, and the music further corroborates that statement, this is surely to please the purists, or the acid heads. I mean, while listening to this release, I kept on reminiscing of all those glorious Djax-Up records I have not played for a minute now.
This is club focused material, dark dance floors. Tresor style. As such, expectations are met. Donato keps his tool kit on bread and water: drum machine and the TB-303. The results are outstanding. He somehow manages to reinvent a sound aesthetic that had its heyday a long while ago, and make it pleasing to modern day listeners.
Most tracks, excluding perhaps the opener, are quite simply DJ fodder of the highest possible caliber, with a special mention to the B side cuts. This does of course not exclude living room sessions. The concept is narrow, but ideas are plenty, and enough variation has been implemented into the whole project to validate multiple spins at my place for the past week.

I ran into some unfavorable comments on the internet, mainly related to the fact that this release misses some of the maker's notorious experimental and do-dare touches. I wholeheartedly disagree. As an artist, it is only right you have a musical journey, and even better when the fans hop aboard. It is always a pleasure to run into fresh layouts, new ideas and unexplored sonic territories. That's what all great artists gravitate to. But, it is only the exceptional artists who can get off the avantgard / geeky bandwagon, and get down to brass tasks. See, as experimental and adventurous as Donato Dozzy is, he is not afraid of showing that he can rip the cut. Boy he can. This is yet another pearl ih his multifaceted champion belt. Y'all thought that all I could do was play Bee Mask? In your face.

At the end of the day, if this album is a dedication to his lifelong friend Filo, an hommage to the past with nods to the future, and above all a celebration of Tresor's mammoth accomplishments, then there is simply nothing not to like across these pieces of wax. Bottom line: you like Tresor? If yes, you'll dig this. You like acid? You do. Great, you will like this as well.
In my opinion, Donato Dozzy has honored the Tresor legacy in the most respectful way possible, by trading in some of that sintetizzatrice flavor in return for some proper, down to the nitty gritty techno goodness. Any fan of Tresor ought to love that.

Listened to this album together with a friend last weekend, while on 2 good hits of acid. Was blown away by the depth and subtlety of the rhythms. An instant acid techno classic for me. With track Duetto I had the experience of hearing an actual horse galloping through my living room. I'm pretty sure Dozzy actually tried to model that sound in that track.

Very grateful to Dozzy for this release and together with his equal genius Mindless Fullness EP (both tracks on there are incredible too). Very happy to have them both on vinyl in my collection and I'll be listening to them often for sure.