Austrian veteran Claudio Ricci, who is currently spending more time in Ibiza than in his native home, has just come up with a brand new label called Stripped Down, a platform he founded together with Monika and Christian Zorn. Of course focusing on all forms of electronic music, the label’s first offering is quite a nice one as the synth heavy ‘Warschauer Strasse’ by head honcho Claudio Ricci will hit the shelves in the near future. The track has a cosmic feel to it, which doesn’t surprise me as I know Ricci being a very open minded producer, who is able to adapt different styles of music and put them together in one tune. A certain rawness is present, but it is the kind of rawness that keeps the floors burning. On the remix tip legendary German don Timo Maas teams up with man on the rise Basti Grub (the duo will release some more collaborations soon) to deliver a techy rollercoaster with plenty of ups and downs within the mix. Again synths are the dominant factor, together with some nice percussion to give the mix some extra bounce. Next up is Ibiza resident Kintar who comes up with a bubbling Techno mix which also can be said about Bulgaria’s finest Metodi Hristov’s version, which even is a little bit more intense and certainly will have its fans within the Beyer/Hawtin league. All in all this is an impressive start for an interesting label and platform, we expect nothing but biggies after this first release!
4.5 out of 5
Reviewed by MANNIX
