Portuguese painter turned Berlin-based DJ and producer Mauro Ventura operates under the DJ Saliva alias, a project born from his founding of Arena Spa Superiora; a queer non-conforming party series established in Porto in 2014 that has since followed him to Berlin.
A resident and in-house visual artist at the celebrated Herrensauna collective, his work sits at the intersection of art, music, and radical club culture. Urtiga marks his musical debut on Al Gharib; a label founded in Tripoli, Lebanon, whose releases have featured contributions from the likes of Rrose, Nkisi, Hiro Kone, and Nikita Zabelin, and whose humanitarian compilations have raised funds for causes in Palestine and Lebanon.
The Hatch opens proceedings with off-kilter footwork percussion that immediately sets the tone for what follows. A frolicing acid line joins the fray alongside feverish, vocodered vocals oscillating wildly around the sound space.
Song to the Siren II follows with a distinctly tribalistic energy; atmospheric vocal pads fade in and out with palpable intensity, carried by cultish drums that evoke a sense of cosmic spirituality. That meditative quality is then punctured by the intense futurism of acid techno-flecked Lift, its acerbic synth cutting through while the tribal undercurrent quietly persists.
Remordimento affords a more melancholic disposition; dark, brooding techno with an industrial twist. Our favourite track on the EP arrives next; Dancing Through The Mouth of Glass Until the Salt Becomes Sweet is a glorious breakbeat excursion carrying a weighty sub bass below a looping high-end synth motif that builds to a creeping, irresistible euphoria as the EP plays out.
A bonus track rounds out the promo pack, though we remain uncertain whether Exuvia Fur Perla features on the final release.
If the preceding tracks were the storm, this is the eerie stillness that follows. Decidedly otherworldly in character; 'Exuvia' translates as the casting off of a shell or skin (an insect mid-moult), while 'Fur' suggests thief in Latin, 'Perla' remaining stubbornly untranslatable so perhaps it is a name.
Maybe the track’s subject inhabits the discarded carapace of something that has already moved on. Pondering aside, it is an unsettlingly quiet excursion; a most fitting close to a thoroughly compelling collection.
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