Exhale

The eight tracks that make up UK producer Batu and Rome’s Donato Dozzy’s Exhale album create their own self-contained sonic world, abstract, wordless, sophisticated, futuristic, and intense. You could call it a techno album but the tracks strain at the very edges of the genre’s boundaries, with Batu bringing a distinctly UK bass music feel to the productions, with detailed, intricate, unearthly percussion and drums, and heavy-duty bass. The pair of producers maintain the overall haunting, introspective, deep, unearthly mood across varying tempos, from scuttling, shuffling nocturnal post-techno stalkers, to mid-tempo, warping, 4/4 grinders, and the downtempo beatific album closer “Bloom” which takes the same complex, granular approach to percussion as the rest of the album, and a similar cinematic soundscape feel too, but which gradually moves towards a glorious yet subtle, shimmering finale.