Alessandro Adriani is a lot of things – DJ, producer, live performer and label owner –
but above all he is a tireless music researcher. The Berlin-based Italian goes further
than your average “crate digger” in pursuit of information about sounds, styles,
artists and record labels, devoting countless hours to unearthing the untold stories
behind the music he loves, regardless of when it was made.
Adriani’s obsession has naturally shaped his other musical endeavors, not least
Mannequin Records, the label he established a decade ago. Over the years, the
imprint has won praise from buyers and critics alike for its open-minded blend of onpoint
reissues, archival collections and fresh productions. The intriguing, leftfield
mixture of material on offer – think cold wave, industrial, EBM, minimal synth,
skewed electro and more – is naturally a reflection of Adriani’s wide-ranging and offkilter
tastes (as you’d discover if you had a quick flick through his vast and growing
record collection).
Adriani is distinctively drawn towards the dark and obscure, and you can hear this
approach amongst the long, drawn-out mixes of his similarly eclectic DJ sets. Like
others who came of age in Rome during the city’s techno boom of the mid 1990s, he
often instinctively draws for pitch-black techno and wild acid tracks alongside EBM,
industrial and cold wave cuts. It’s this blend you’ll find Adriani exploring during his
bi-monthly dates at Berghain and Panorama Bar, a residency he’s held since early
2016.
As a producer, Adriani’s output naturally draws on these inspirations, but also
reflects his obsession with electronic hardware. Although celebrated for his more
edit-minded work under the Newclear Waves alias, under his own name Adriani has
built a reputation for delivering heavy, angular and forthright club cuts for such
celebrated labels as Pinkman, Stroboscopic Artefacts and Jealous God. He’ll be
returning to Stroboscopic Artefacts in 2019 to deliver a collaborative album with the
Hacker entitled “Amato & Adriani”.
The analogue-rich, hardware-focused nature of this trademark sound comes to the
fore in his live performances, which began before he even started DJing. Adriani
recently returned to live performance with a headline-grabbing audio-visual show at
Atonal Berlin, as part of a night he curated and programmed entitled “Drift”. We’d
expect there to be further performances in 2019, assuming Adriani can find the time
in his packed schedule. After all, the music he loves won’t research itself.