Darkwave producer Torba has just released his highly-anticipated debut album II via numeronove.
The Italy-based producer (aka Luigi Pianezzola) and The Soft Moon touring musician makes stark electronic tracks that pull from punk, industrial and club music while retaining a modern grit of his own and creating a distinct and destructive sound.
Torba began as a lockdown experiment, and a creative outlet for Pianezzola as he recorded for other artists. Whilst at home, he tinkered with drum tracks and patterns every day, following his nose to find inspiration. “It was a space to do whatever I wanted,” he explains. “It felt good to do something ‘wrong’, because when recording somebody else, you have to work with the cleanest sound. When I’m doing my stuff, I try to push it as hard as I can to do everything wrong.”
Pianezzola’s process is instinctive and reactive, often working with rough takes and out-of-tune instruments to give songs an off-kilter feel. “That’s very important”, he says. “I see it every day – people not making extreme decisions anymore. They record the stuff clean, and then they try to find the tone during the production, I always try to do the opposite. I try to look for the sound immediately. If it works, it works. Otherwise, I take it off.”
The record works in two modes. Torba flits between angry and energetic offerings like “PUNTO” and more reflective instrumentals. “SIDES” and “ONDA” are built on slow-moving climaxes, rhythmic playfulness and an enveloping nocturnal atmosphere. Giddy curiosity connects the two sides, as does a sense of danger. “I like to use acoustic sounds or samples and then I over-process to destroy it one piece at a time,” Pianezzola says. “I love to use bit reduction and digital distortion to keep just the tone and try to destroy everything else, to get to the very essence of the sound.”
Are you going to give Torba’s debut album II a spin?
