CD Published by AFE Records in 2007.
Artwork by Robert Rebotti / Jack La Motta.
The common trait of most of the tracks on the album, is the use of sounds grabbed from natural sources in more synthetic contexts.
The album title is open to different meanings and may be explained with multiple interpretations (…”Mother Nature“, the “nature” of things, “nature” as attitude/constitution, etc.) that we leave to anyone’s sensitiveness.
All tracks on “Chemical Nature” are mixed together to create a seventyfour minutes journey. The disc starts with the minimal introduction of “Digital Wind” and continues with “2 Many Words“, an IDM / Breakbeat track built on intricate 7/4 drum patterns driven by multiple effects that bring everything very far from the edge of stability.
“Placenta” begins with different recordings of water that are soon paired with percussive sequencer lines of digital sounds. “Wireframe” is a more complex and faster number based on infinite rhythmic permutations with added pads, bubbles and effects that clearly showcase a034‘s production skills.
Treated sounds of wood, shells, sand and stones appear on “Drilling Stones” along with almost unrecognizable vocal samples gifting us with another softly drilled experience.
The voice of the sea is the lead protagonist of the aptly titled “s34“, a more quiet and bouncing ambient tune… Surprisingly there are no ice sounds on – ehm – “Ice” but some obstinated piano and synth melodies laid upon a bed of classic d’n’b breakbeats and bass lines.
A ticking clock introduces the beautiful “Ananke“, another complex track that lives on countless fragments of a sampled ghostly voice counterpointed by multiple digital events.
“Diapason” features more contact-microphoned objects, both in highly treated and untreated mode, and ambient drones created elaborating the sound of a simple… diapason.
“Elektrostatic” is a slow and slightly obsessive track with its reiterated bass hooks and more samples of rubber, plastic, sand, etc.
Cloacking in at more than ten minutes, “Mantra” is the longest episode on “Chemical Nature“. It fuses together an entrancing indian mantra and a transcendental sufi chant with more synth lines and simple percussion patterns. This music could really go on forever and you couldn’t help falling inside the rotating spiral it creates.
“No Time, No Space“: that’s exactly where you should find yourself as soon as the previous track comes to its conclusion. The digital pads of this tune create a sense of void and at the end you’re left with some echoing remains…
“Lacrima cosmica” (Cosmic Tear) closes the album with its slow heavy industrial breaks. It is dedicated to Betty 23, a well-known and respected activist/protagonist of the italian punk/underground scene who sadly perished in an accidental fire in 2004.