Italian DJ and producer
Mauro Picotto built a name for himself with the massive reptilian trilogy of trance hits, "Iguana," "Lizard," and "Komodo" (as in dragon). But if you haven't already stopped reading, then hold on one more moment, because
Picotto has made the rather unconventional shift from trance histrionics to chugging techno thump.
Almost every selection on
The Others utilizes the rapid tribal-loops of Swedish techno to achieve maximum dancefloor velocity. However, unlike the staunch DJ tools that have come out of Sweden in the past,
Picotto turns simple track mechanisms into overblown epics that swell and crest like his most popular work. To techno purists, this makes
Picotto a sheep in wolf's clothing, but to trance crowds looking for a harder rush, it makes
Picotto exactly what they've been waiting for.
"Back to Cali" and "Pulsar #" deny all of these propositions, reworking 1995 trance with aplomb. There's no mistaking these routine arpeggios and synth stabs. But the rest of this album deftly walks the line between rugged beat tracks and epic dancefloor fillers. The coin flips continuously throughout each selection. ~ Joshua Glazer