When Xelima Records turned up in these pages earlier this year, we talked about the catalogue and not the man who started it. Franco Rossi founded the label out of Córdoba and has spent the years since running it while building a considerable body of work of his own, with releases landing on Secession, BCCO, Diffuse Reality, and Subsist, the Valencia imprint we know well from Pont's Existence Gateway and Daher's recent premiere.

A resident for TERRAFURIA Events on home turf, he has shared booths with Richie Hawtin, Nina Kraviz, Perc, FJAAK, Zadig, 999999999, Gaiser, and Matrixxman, picked up support from DVS1 and Setaoc Mass, and had his tracks find their way onto systems at Berghain, Bassiani, FOLD, Printworks, and Awakenings. He also works as one half of Rotwang, who appeared on that same XELIMA BREAKS REWIND compilation.

The EP opens in an almost globular fashion thanks to Materia Prima’s oscillating synth undulating steadily amidst crackling slashes of electricity. The track soon blooms into a peak time techno snarler, layered components attacking and decaying with equal fervour for an exhilarating start.

Gnosis takes on a dubby, hypnotic verve, its sonic structure emulating the sensation of forward propulsion. The track’s dubby-ness lends itself to an aquatic feel which gives some of the synth elements a sonar-like quality between the driving techno percussion.

The penultimate track is a pure tension play. Contexto de Crisis is one of those productions that has a tangible sense of foreboding or mild panic too it. Techno lends itself well to these emotions; such sounds consistently conjure images of malevolent robotic agents giving chase, or similar.

We close on Maese J14, where our teacher delivers our final lesson. Pure power techno from the off, and possessing an energy that is primed to torch the dancefloor. Rossi has delivered a superb EP here that doesn’t let up on the relentless energy.

Materia Prima EP is out now. Grab it on Bandcamp. Four concrete peak time sledgehammers.