Artist: D-Leria

Release: Driving To Nowhere

Label: Delirio

Release date: 10th December 2018

After making his debut on Berlin based label Delirio over a year ago, D-Leria returns with Driving To Nowhere, his first full length LP. Produced between 2014 and 2018, the ten track album marks a new beginning for the young Italian producer. D-Leria sweeps between ambient excursions and hypnotic techno with ease; leaving his own style imprinted on each track.

Driving To Nowhere beings with Libero, a cinematic number with emotional strings flowing over a distant crackle. The mood moves toward the dance floor on Ectoplasm, a hybrid track that fuses the structure of traditional club tracks with the contemporary style of hypnotic techno. The psychedelic effort has an aura of inception to it, and would suit the start of a set perfectly.

Her Smile is an ambient piece with fluttering melodies ascending swiftly, moving focus away from the hypnotic sounds heard previously. Uragano moves the record to a darker place, with gritty mechanical melodies and a disorientating kick touching on IDM territory.

Invisible is a straight forward techno tool with bright twinkling tones suspended above a bouncy kick drum. The sounds evolve over the course of the track, with D-Leria showing here his ability to craft engaging melodies on top of well executed rhythm structures.

From The Ground moves Driving To Nowhere in a different direction, with D-Leria trying his hand at tribal techno. Samples of animals in a rainforest are thrown into the mix on top of tribal drums to create a wonderfully immersive soundscape. From The Ground is dynamic and hits hard.

Running Against Time has a frantic energy to it. Jittering notes play over a thumping kick to create an anxious mood. D-Leria’s ability to seamlessly glide between styles with ease is displayed here, as a huge change in energy and direction is effortlessly executed.

Makumba moves back to the hypnotic style seen at the beginning of the record, with futuristic bleeps and tones adding atmosphere to a robotic melody. Texture is a huge part of D-Leria’s repertoire and is seen on Makumba in spades.

Reborn serves as a transitional period on Driving To Nowhere. An atmospheric ambient piece, Reborn closes off the core of the record with washed out spacey synths. Juxtaposed with the huge surge of energy just experienced, Reborn shows D-Leria’s understanding of structure along with the importance of velocity.

Driving To Nowhere concludes the record on an emphatic high. Hypnotic tones are placed over a driving beat with a steady paced climb taking place through the melody. The rainforest samples previously heard reemerge, as if to say the record has come full circle. Psychedelic and raw, Driving To Nowhere is the prime example of D-Leria’s ability to craft hybrid techno that cannot be pinned down to one specific style.

Driving To Nowhere is an energetic, quick-fire record that quickly alternates between auras and tempos. D-Leria’s ability to interchange genres seamlessly like a techno chameleon speaks volumes of his understanding of techno as an art form. Hypnotic; ambient; tribal; borderline industrial; this record has it all. D-Leria exhibits that versatility as a producer is thoroughly rewarding; any track on this record could be used in a DJ set and would be well received. By drawing influence from sub genres foregone and merging them with contemporary forwarding thinking ideas, D-Leria has created a debut record that will set him apart from his contemporaries.