On his long-awaited debut album, Lisbon club scene mainstay Marco Rodrigues (
Photonz) embraces the concept of "freedom of form under the night sky," crafting exploratory tracks that draw from several styles and eras of dance music. Coming directly after EPs that referenced sounds such as new beat, breakbeat hardcore, and acid house, his full-length continues in this eclectic mode, but has a bit more of a spiritual bent. Named after the Egyptian Goddess of the Stars,
Nuit is packaged in a hieroglyphic-adorned sleeve, and its tracks feel like a search for enlightenment at an open-air rave. Electro is one of the album's bigger touchstones, rather than straightforward techno or house. "Shifting Symbols" has twisted beat patterns and dancing melodies which instantly bring
Plaid to mind, and "Avalon" has more of a night-cruising feel to it, with lapses into fractured 8-bit bleeps. "Ode to Nuit" has a much steadier beat and a wonderfully bubbly bass tone, and "Shakti" hints at EBM, but with more of a starbound gaze. "Celestial Palace" has a Balearic sway to it, with traces of a double-time rhythm that threatens to go fully drum'n'bass but doesn't. After the lurching, quasi-industrial "Doomsday Dub," the album is rounded out by the darker, Detroit-esque techno of "Brighter Tomorrows" and the nebulous, swirling abstraction "Genesis." ~ Paul Simpson