PREMIERE : My Friend Dario - Marittimo

Les Yeux Orange

Stop what you're doing and give us your full attention because Hell Yeah mainstay My Friend Dario's new album Senza Estate is going to define the sound of summer 2024. It's an eclectic eight-track collection that has something for everyone and is inspired by dreamy Italian soundtrack composers Piero Piccioni and Umiliani. The curveball Italian talent is a dance floor don who collides acid, nu-disco, breakbeat and electro. His take on Balearic is unique sending dance floors wild, as proven with his Food For Woofers Vol 2 earlier in the year. His new album is the sound of life by the Mediterranean, Balearic audio pleasure for daytime dreaming and nighttime dancing with vocal tracks written and performed by the UK's Space Echo Records associate Darene Obika. My Friend Dario hails from Catania on the island of Sicily and his inspiration for Senza Estate, which translates to 'without summer,' was an imaginary holiday, weekends at the seaside, car journeys in the sun, relaxing sunsets and late-night dancing. "For five years, I worked in a shop six days a week so despite living on a Mediterranean island I could never enjoy these things. Instead, I locked myself in the studio and jotted down the ideas, sensations, melodies and rhythms I had about another lost summer." 'Keep On Cruising' is a downtempo opener with synths that are filled with hope and promise for warm months ahead. 'Zingarella' is a wide-open sea view with wispy pads, seductive flutes and jazzy melodies that bristle with life. The tropical title cut gets more dancey on shuffling broken beats and radiant synths. There's a seductive laid-back cool to the tumbling keys of 'Marittimo' and 'What You Need' is a horizontal groove with loved-up vocals. 'Falò' pairs sensual acoustic guitar with pillowy drums, while 'Il Pianeta Proibito' layers sci-fi synths and stuttering bass into a sound that leads to a cosmic take-off. 'Acid Panorama' is the melancholic closer hinting that the summer sun is setting after weeks of carefree fun.