- Fabio Monesi is a busy guy. The Italian-born, London-based hardware and vinyl obsessive currently looks after two labels, Wilson Records and Hardmoon London, and releases music under his own name and his even lower-fi Hissman alias. Monesi draws inspiration from Chicago, Detroit and garage house, plus other scuffed-up and soulful dance styles associated with black producers from the US. He's also not afraid of pushing things into the red. A Discogs comment on a Monesi EP says the 12-inch "sounds like it was cut with a dirty needle in a grim toilet." All this hard work has paid off. Ron Morelli put out an EP from Monesi on Russian Torrent Versions last year, and now Crème Organization is on board with a 12-inch called Last Friday.
Monesi is at his best when he applies melody to blown-out percussion. On "Riot" this balance is achieved with subtle chords placed over Relief-style drums. The title cut is pure Detroit, flipping a dusty Rhodes sample into a blurry, Moodymann-style beatdown. Things get back on track with "Ozyork," a swaggering breakbeat track that's equal parts acid house and golden era hip-hop. With his Crème debut, Monesi continues to build on a promising catalog of straight-to-tape tracks injected with a healthy reverence for dance music history.
TracklistA1 Riot
A2 Last Friday
B1 Reduction
B2 Ozyork