quête:marinada

After releasing the single “Čista ljubav” back in 2012, Marinada
and producer Qwerty continued to synthesize the band’s rich
catalogue. This collaboration album features eight songs
where Qwerty utilizes his playful approach to dance music
strongly tying together Marinada’s truthful voice and sensitive
instrumentation. The two sides bring in a wide range of
influences into the mix: from retro techno-pop and new wave
to contemporary braindance and acid house. The electronic
sounds are wrapped around simple and repetitive lyrics that
are simultaneously clearly relatable (if you speak Croatian)
and fully mystifying. Marinada has been a truly productive
phenomenon on the Croatian music scene, putting out more
than 20 albums woven from lo-fi electronica, acoustic
minimalism and art rock. Besides the hometown, the band is
connected to Qwerty via the family tree: the brothers have
been making IDMy techno sounds since the late 1990s and
releasing music on labels such as Phthalo and Breakin’
Records.

SWIMS returns with their third release since last summer’s romance with London’s Kit Records which spawned two beautiful albums by Romeo Poirier and Electric Capablanca.

Leaving behind the soothing natural landscapes of the previous releases, Finomehanika is an intricate 42-minute machinist journey combining the frayed melancholia of Vladislav Delay’s recently reissued Multila, with the strangely real-sounding yet otherworldly mechanics of Autechre in their Confield era. However, Finomehanika sounds thoroughly unique. It makes heavy use of the piano and field recordings for depth and ambience. The line between synthesized sound and manipulated recordings blur to a point where one becomes the other. The often subtle use of field recordings prevents us from drifting too far into the abstract, keeping us grounded in a fragmented, confusing but familiar environment.

Finomehanika is Robert’s first solo release in 20 years since 2000’s Albumski on Phthalo. The sleeve was designed by Michael Tan known for his previous work with artists such as Blanck Mass and Dopplereffekt. The album features on piano Robert’s brother Miro, better known for his releases as Qwerty. The brothers also recently collaborated on 2019 album Na Vrućem Krovu by Robert’s art-pop band Marinada.