Donato Dozzy and Milanese veteran Stefano Ghittoni mint a new series on Dozzy’s Mage Circe
Musica imprint, channeling Daniele Baldelli’s cosmic disco manifesto and exploring screwed
rhythms, psychedelic electronix and blunted dub atmospheres. So good - imagine a half-speed
Shinichi Atobe or Rrose spliced with GRM-damaged concréte FX and percussion courtesy of
Konono No.1. Basically it’s peak Dozzy syrup - Tip!
Alicia Carrera and Donato Dozzy’s Maga Circe Musica label has quickly established itself as an
outlet for some of the most impressively tight experimental slop we’ve heard in ages. Dozzy and
Ghittoni’s first La Petit plate is no different, using the enduring influence of Northeastern Italian
electronic music (think Baldelli and Marco Dionigi) to help transform and repurpose dub techno,
folk, ambient music, jazz and global sounds.
If Baldelli and Dionigi were best known for pushing disco’s tempo down to a crawl, Dozzy and
Ghittoni do the same with their wealth of diggers’ influences, dipping hollow 4/4 percussion and
syncopated hand drums to a chug on ‘Sukia’ and slowly building an atmosphere with low-slung
bass and spooked electronics. Imagine holding down the pitch slider on a Badalamenti score and a
Funkadelic 12” playing at the same time, for the gist.
On ‘Lanquidity’ the duo pull in horizontal dub pads and place them against a resinous thud and
swirling dub FX, played slower than it should be and somehow operating in the same gloopy zone
as Newworldaquarium to emphasise mood and texture over technical trickery. ‘Niento’ is even
better, using smeared LM1 claps for a sort of assymetric, purple funk played at -8 while taking
a fourth world-inspired rhythm and welding it to lysurgic synth drones and nipped kicks - it’s a
mid-point between vintage bleep techno, cosmic disco and rhythmic psychedelia.
‘Le Petit’ is over too soon, but gives us plenty to chew on: anyone who enjoys Dozzy’s genre-
agnostic DJ sets or the fertile area between hazy ambience and half-speed dancefloor zones - this
one’s a killer.
