Giuseppe Ottaviani - Magenta Review

Written by Richard Ronchetti on 25 June 2013 in Reviews
Giuseppe Ottaviani - Magenta Review

Firstly let me extend my congratulations to Giuseppe for polling 11th in this year’s coveted TrancePodium DJ Top 50. Like most people, I’d give my right nut to be the 11th best in the world at something.

Anything would do, extreme ironing, hungry hippos, midget tossing, I’m not bothered which. Anything to help me (like Giuseppe) to live up to my Italian heritage. That’s right, despite the fact that I’m blonde, can’t speak the lingo and get sun burn if there’s a full moon I am (all be it by a small percentage) of Italian decent. And let’s be honest the Italians are good at pretty much everything they turn their well-manicured hands to.

Among many other accolades they can boast the best food in the world, a world-class national football team, fashion sense that puts us all to shame and of course top DJ and production talent like Giuseppe. Add to this the fact that their women are on the most part bronzed goddesses and their men would likely take your wife from you with one sexy glance and it’s a wonder why we even talk to the smug buggers. If success is the yardstick of life, they’re in the end zone banging the cheerleaders.

Giuseppe is of course a typical Italian in this sense. He has been an unstoppable force in Trance music ever since NU NRG busted onto the scene in 2001 and I’ve followed his ascent with keen interest ever since. Free Fall is one of my favorite Trance artist albums, his remix work over the years has been nothing short of class and Linking People still makes me mess myself with joy every time I hear it. So when his latest album Magenta landed on my desk a few weeks ago, I was keen to throw on some fresh pants and press play.

Now I’ve always felt that vocal tracks are the hardest to get right in dance music. In my opinion for every 30 vocal tracks that are released only one or two at a stretch will be any good. The rest will be sort of… meh. These odds get even worse for me when we dive into the minefield of male vocal lead tracks which I personally can’t get on with at all.

So when I discovered that of the 15 tracks on Magenta, a whopping 10 were vocal, it was squeaky bum time. That’s a large proportion by anyone’s standards and based on the above ratio I wasn’t confident that the quality could be kept high enough to keep my interest. That said I’m happy to report that apart from the male vocal tracks (which I shall dismiss from this review on the basis that my preconceptions wouldn’t allow a fair critique) Giuseppe comes out of this smelling of roses.

Support from big hitting vocalists such as Audrey Gallagher and Linnea Schossow to name but a few ensure Giuseppe’s typically tasty production work doesn’t go to waste. Of all the vocal efforts on this album, Stars feat Linnea Schossow wins the hi-five from me. Linniea’s vocal performance is soft and haunting and supports Giuseppe’s euphoric synth line in a way that gives me the same goose bumps you get when you take a wee in a cold bathroom (you know what I’m talking about fellas).

As expected the instrumental offerings on Magenta are strong. Ferry Corsten (number 10 in the TrancePodium DJ Top 50) lends a hand on the albums well aired title track and for the first time since the Second World War, Italy and Egypt collide resulting in the epic Brilliant People with Aly & Fila (number 2 in the TrancePodium DJ Top 50). Congratulations also lads.

Now there seems to be some sort of un-written rule among Trance producers that you have to mix it up a bit on your artist album and include a token break beat track. Unfortunately, like a giraffe on a cobbled street this always falls flat on its face. Giuseppe’s crack at this isn’t bad to be honest and Lo-Fi Sugar's vocals in particular are very nice but on the whole I’m still not convinced by the trend.

That said Magenta is a blinding success, I’ve had it on repeat at my midget tossing classes this week and it’s really improved my game. Giuseppe’s status as number 11 is justified for sure in my eyes and I’m tipping him to climb our poll (no pun intended) into the top ten next year.

Magenta is out now from the usual outlets and I urge you in the name Italy and quality Trance music to check it out.


About the author

Richard RonchettiRichard Ronchetti is a DJ, producer and reviewer from the UK with an unhealthy obsession for grated cheese.

He plays and produces essentially Trance with lots of House and Progressive influence and will be posting a bi-monthly promo mix on Mixcloud, Facebook and Twitter. Each mix will (if his levels of creativity and grated cheese allow) contain his own tracks, mashups and remixes.

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