I remember what a revelation it was the first time I heard Arquipelago, one of Gui Boratto’s early singles. Although the sound of this tune was distinctively sparse his music is not definitively minimal. More importantly Boratto’s recent releases prove his ability to consistently create compelling sounds in an arena where remaining relevant is a hard task.

Now I’m not one who likes the use of vocals in electronic music unless they are heavily distorted. Indeed I tend to skip past anything that resembles a “proper” vocal. They always remind me with horror of the “I want to take you higher!” mindless disco dancer brigade. Gui Boratto is one of the rare exceptions to this rule as he manages to limit the vocals to short and minor components. On the beautifully lush “No Turning Back” Boratto’s wife, Luciana Villanova is given vocal duties. Thankfully these are short and subtly embedded into the track with plinky noises and distorted guitars and survives with no real harm done to the music. I await with anticipation a distorted vocoder vocal remix a la the 2007 “Beautiful Life “Sascha Funke Remix as a more edgy alternative.

“Take My Breath Away” develops themes and samples explored on his first album Chromophobia. On the title track Boratto employs his trademark deep throbbing drone that he so thrillingly utilized on Arquipelago. The rest of the album is liberally sprinkled with bleeps and ambient refrains and a carefully concealed bass line intermittently surfaces to dramatic effect throughout the album. This pays homage in part to New Order’s Peter Hook and shows Boratto’s ability to transcend the electronic musical genre and reach out to a wider music audience. His strength is his consistency and quality tunes and this album delivers on both.