Luca Lozano (Lukas Hunter) is one of the more exciting producers currently working in electronic music. Releases on Super Rhythm Trax, Hypercolour, Sex Tags and his own Klasse Wrecks label has seen the UK producer and DJ carve out a unique sound on the dance floor. Embodying the spirit of UK dance music history today, Luca Lozano has been working within the realm of break-beats, acid and rave, combining these elements in a modern aesthetic with powerful effects.
From the electro-tinged explorations of “Outer Space” to a recent bootleg release that wasn’t officially named his, but carries his signature all over the release, a Luca Lozano track or EP carries certain hallmarks that sets it apart in the contemporary landscape and makes it instantly recognisable and appealing.
He finds a unique sympathy with the musical world around him, while mutating it through the UK provenance from which the producer arrived into music. Elements of Hardcore and Rave find a symbiotic relationship with today’s sonic palettes, taming those mythic beasts for modern audiences. The singles and EPs he has released up to this point indulged the DJ’s perspective, but now comes an album on Running Back that extends beyond the DJ booth and takes Lozano’s sound to a whole new audience, “Boss Moves”.
Like KiNK’s last album on the label, “Boss Moves” is Luca Lozano distilling the sound he’s cultivated over his EP’s and singles into the album format, incorporating more layers into the music that softens the functional aspects of dance music without losing sight of the inherent, infectious appeal of his artistry.
“Boss Moves” calls to mind the furtive 90’s without any sense of nostalgia. Acid riffs and deep, dub bass figures ebb in the subterranean depth of breakbeat percussion arrangements. Legato synths pad out the spaces between the rhythm section without subverting the functional demand of Lozano’s music.
For the most part, the producer tempers the blow of the sound we’ve come to know from him, but every track carries the signature of his work and in its entirety. “Boss Moves” concentrates Lozano’s efforts on the essential elements in his work and exploits them for something more accessible. He takes those core 90’s UK dance music elements lost to time, dusts them off and puts them in a modern context where everything from the Balearic Isles to Ambient music finds a place in his rich sonic tapestry.
It’s Lozano’s melodic treatment of the album that sets it apart from previous EPs. With specific designs on the album format, tracks like “Essential Elements” are swathed in expressive synths and atmospheric padding that add a visceral dimension to the rhythmic arrangements. Although this is not Luca Lozano’s first foray into the LP format, it centres the varied sound his been proliferating through his EPs over the last few years, highlighting the core appeal that they all share, and taking them beyond the dance floor.
“Boss Moves” is a record that fits in various sections of our record shelf with a very unique artistic voice behind it and it will be in the spotlight this week as our album of the week.