Reviews

Ether RealVery little information (apart from the musician's birth name) is given to us at the same time as this first album by Build, for which it is therefore a question of trusting Audiobulb , a quality house but with too many releases for all. realize it. With his soft and cottony melodic electronica, the one who is, moreover, a visual artist, seduces us quite quickly, with the first three pieces of a long-format published only on the internet. The almost languid atmosphere feasts on these sweet chromatic lines, these caressing rhythms and these pointillist materials.

If there was a risk of a certain monotony, or even complacency in this well-defined form, the American awakens his audience with Run , positioned in fourth place, and crossed by a much more marked pulsation and dancing inflections, then The One and MD S2 8 , placed just after, which respectively offer a metallic rhythm with a sustained tempo and a polyrhythm with fine intertwined materials. Subsequently, Build offers, quite classically, an alternation between these two poles, a scheme that is certainly a bit mechanical but which allows you to taste each of the two registers without getting tired.

Then emerge a few titles, such as SCE 19 and its delectable conjunction of granular pulsations and silky layers, or the caudal Sotto which, stretched over five minutes, takes on pleasant electronica-ambient trappings.

Original > HERE

Organ Thing“Perfectly executed electronic music. Motion, glitch with a smooth stability core anchored to multiple interior orienting points”. An album that comes out on January 1st, 2024, next year then. This is crisp, pure, it is almost perfect, is it AI? Haven’t looked yet, it feels perfectly possible that it is, but then there is warmth,, it does feel real. Who or what is Build? “Build isn’t a techno producer”, Build is apparently Damon Zucconi, some of it is almost church-like, one of those very modern very white ultra clean churches, the type that worships the god of minimalist technology. This is a very stylish very forward looking album, does it sound a little like one of those slick adverts for futuristic electric car type lifesyles?  

“Zucconi delivers a unique blend of breakbeat-driven techno and darkwave. His latest album Orienting Points builds from the foundations of his previous work to create something that feels familiar yet completely new”. This really is an album designed for movement. It is both refreshing and tranquil, it feels effortless, it feels very very 2024, “Damon Zucconi creates exceptionally well planned urban landscapes created for the convenience of suburban commuters”. And a word for that perfect artwork, artwork matters…

Original > HERE

Chain D.L.K.The title of this album, whose listening brought me back to my mind some glitchy electronics spread by labels like PlugResearch or Expanding Records almost 20 yeas ago, suggests guidance, direction, perhaps even a sense of purpose. But let’s not get carried away with expectations. This latest offering from BUILD, released under Audiobulb’s ever-discerning gaze, is as much about disorientation as it is about finding one’s way. New York-based audio and visual artist Damon Zucconi, the brain behind BUILD, presents us with an electronic landscape that feels like a meticulously crafted maze. Whether you find your way through or get lost in the twists and turns might just depend on your tolerance for sonic ambiguity.

The album opens with “Bright”, a track that, despite its name, doesn’t exactly flood you with light. Instead, it offers a flickering glow, like the distant city lights seen through the haze of a long, sleepless night. The track is brief, almost to the point of feeling like an unfinished thought, but that seems to be the point. Zucconi isn’t interested in fully developed ideas; he’s more concerned with fragments, with the subtle tension between motion and stasis. It’s glitchy, yes, but there’s an underlying smoothness — a kind of deliberate precision — that keeps everything from spiraling out of control.

The title track, “Orienting Points”, follows, and it’s here that you start to understand what Zucconi is getting at. The track is anchored by a rhythmic core that pulses steadily, like the heartbeat of some vast, digital organism. Around this core, fragments of sound orbit in unpredictable patterns, creating a sense of movement that’s both chaotic and controlled. It’s a delicate balancing act, and Zucconi pulls it off with a kind of effortless grace. But one can’t help but wonder: where is all this motion leading? Is there a destination, or are we simply wandering through a carefully constructed sonic landscape?

“Three” and “Run” continue the exploration, each track offering a new set of challenges for the listener. “Three” is a bit more playful, with its fragmented rhythms and stuttering beats, while “Run” feels more urgent, more driven. There’s a sense of momentum here, as if the album is picking up speed, but again, the destination remains elusive. Zucconi seems content to keep us moving, to keep us guessing, without ever fully revealing his hand.

By the time you reach “MD S2 8”, the album’s longest track, you’re either fully immersed in Zucconi’s world or you’re ready to check out. Clocking in at nearly eight minutes, the track is a sprawling, hypnotic journey through a landscape of glitchy textures and subtle shifts in tone. It’s here that the album’s themes of motion and stability come into full focus. The track is like a long train ride through a digital cityscape — repetitive, yes, but also strangely captivating. You’re not quite sure where you’re going, but the ride is smooth enough that you don’t mind the uncertainty.

“Train” and “SCE 19” continue the journey, each track adding new layers of complexity to the album’s sound. “Train” is perhaps the album’s most straightforward track, with its steady rhythm and almost melodic undertones, while “SCE 19” is more abstract, more challenging. The latter track feels like an exercise in controlled chaos, with its fragmented rhythms and shifting textures. It’s a challenging listen, but it’s also one of the album’s most rewarding moments — a reminder that Zucconi isn’t interested in easy answers or simple pleasures.

The album closes with “Sotto”, a track that feels like a gentle descent back to reality. The glitchy textures are still there, but they’re softer, more muted, as if the digital cityscape is slowly fading into the distance. It’s a fitting end to an album that has been as much about disorientation as it has been about finding one’s way.

Zucconi’s approach to electronic music is meticulous, almost clinical, but there’s also a sense of playfulness, of curiosity, that keeps the album from feeling too cold or distant. It’s an album that rewards repeat listens, each one revealing new layers of complexity, new points of reference. Zucconi’s music is like a digital map that’s constantly shifting, constantly redrawing itself, leaving the listener to navigate a world that’s both familiar and strange. Whether you find your way through or get hopelessly lost, one thing is certain: "Orienting Points" is an album that will keep you coming back, if only to see what new paths you can discover.

Original > HERE

Listening WindI don’t know much about Build, and I have to admit, I like this aura of mild self-seclusion. Anyway, it seems to be a moniker for Damon Zucconi, not a techno producer strictly, not a professional musician, but a visual artist from Bethpage, NY, who works with digital art mostly. In his catalog, there are works created through software, HTML art, pixel art, and generally virtual and digital artifacts, many of which are accessible online (like this one ), this world map in HTML, and this webpage. He also designed the graphic project for Arca’s Kick pentalogy compilation, overlaying the five different covers of the five releases. As an electronic music producer, he made his debut with Untitled Substance back in 2007, later (re)discovered and resurrected by Elon Katz, a Los Angeles-based producer who re-released the album on his Zero Grow label in 2019.

Untitled Substance had all the flaws of an amateur album, made more by a sincere enthusiast than an experienced producer,  techno clubs  that still renounces the “I” of IDM but shows some elements of naïve charm (for example, “No Fun”). A year later, and fifteen years after the original debut, Damon Zucconi returns with a new project and a new moniker for the Sheffield label Audiobulb. 2021’s A Development With A Grid Of Streets And A Shopping Center Heart  has completely abandoned the techno rides of the debut; the twenty-something from 2007 has become a self-assured artist, a professional growth that has also translated into his musical activity: he adds touches of ambient, glitch and soundscapes in the footsteps of Autechre’s Tri Repetae and Amber, perhaps still a bit naïve but effective, and with some thinly veiled ambition (“Hit Ring” seems to want to study the complex details of “Cfern,” Autechre’s undoubtedly masterpiece.).

Orienting Points firmly maintains the coordinates of the first album. Same avatar image—a strongly pixelated photo of a human face, probably female, suggesting an idea of a still blurry future—same patchwork for the cover—a CD that seems to be recovered from a landfill, suggesting a retro-futuristic patina. Same languages: mature IDM tinged with glitch and ambient. The opening track, ‘Bright,’ is a dreamlike and gentle lullaby, reminiscent of Opiate, while the title track “Orienting Points” is built on an elegant and whispered melody, almost the sonic equivalent of a pointillist painting: it wouldn’t look out of place next to Autechre’s more melodic records such Oversteps, sure, but also the recent Plus. “Three” and “Train” add glitch textures, while “Run” and “The One” turn dramatically towards percussive dynamics and occasionally darker tones, still maintaining an austere and elegant melodic line. Some tension drops towards the end (“Cable Crossing,” “SCE 1 9”), but the robotic and almost industrial techno “MD S2 8” fully compensates for those drops. Damon Zucconi proves to be a high-quality amateur producer, Orienting Points serving as a reminder that simplicity is often a winning card. Electronic music may not be his preferred art form, but it is perhaps his naive and practical approach that yields effective and appreciable results like this.

Original > HERE

Musique MachineBuild’s latest release, Orienting Points, is a collection of radically different moods and techniques, which do not always mesh well with one another. 
My hunch is that the plural in “points” offers some indication that the 11 tracks that comprise this work are not meant to be conclusions or summaries of the given mixture. Instead, they are the starting point(s) for whatever follows in their wake. As a whole, the album feels like a study in multiple personality disorder, in large part due to the nature of the transitions that occur between said personalities, which are more abrupt than smooth. For example, the first three tracks are warm, glitchy ambience, devoid of any semblance of syncopation, reminiscent of moments of early Markus Popp (more on the 90s below). Then, out of the blue, “Run” comes on like the accompaniment to a radio broadcast or commercial campaign, and then settles quickly into more programmed beats. It’s hard not to take all of this at face value, whether that is intended or not. I think the points that are doing the orienting are all of a similar era, or epoch, depending on your level of competence. In other words, Orienting Points could be thought of as a kind of mixtape or playlist, with one important difference: it is not one geared toward showcasing the breadth of a particular style or genre. Rather, it is a compilation that showcases style as such.
 
This approach puts listeners on the stage with Build, highlighting the degree to which they might, or might not, be familiar with the tributaries flowing beneath what is on offer. IDM is probably the widest and most sensible point of departure, but Build does not merely ape his sources. Much of Orienting Points is a study in omission. In other words, what is left when some essential part of the equation is removed? On “Train” we get all of the usual sonic material we are used to with Drum & Bass, but there is no bass to speak of, no powerful subharmonic content to deepen the cuts and breakbeats. It’s just the drums and the ephemera that goes along with it – little synth melodies, an abstracted cymbal or bell – you get the drift. When “Sotto”, Orienting Points’ final track, starts to bloom, the delimited boundaries of Build’s universe come into focus, with a female voice uttering what sounds like “Vermentino”. Maybe I just wanted a glass (it’s one of my favs), but the Italian of the track’s title, along with Build’s (aka Damon Zucconi) ostensible Italo-roots, could be a sign that this sotto (Italian for “under”), is twofold: physically submerged as well as under the influence of. I digress.
 
Orienting Points will appeal to those both initiated and uninitiated with those furtive years of the mid-90s, when intelligence and brainy experimentation were actually values within the broader field of electronic music. It’s not nostalgia, though. Build is working through his past, like any good adult should.

Original > HERE