Send "Gui Boratto " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Slantmagazine |
 It's hard to imagine dancing to a good portion of Gui Boratto's Take My Breath Away, a dance album with a mathematical mind that keeps its beats consistent but often hunkers down into contemplative quietude. Boratto has an uncommon sense of patience, even for a DJ, which means his songs build carefully and slowly, sometimes stretching past the eight-minute mark. They also behave unexpectedly, eschewing genre patterns for pieces whose patterns are dictated by their own careful sense of mood. The title track begins quiet and stays that way without peaking—a surprisingly subtle touch for an opening number. "Atomic Soda" dotes on its soft, churning beat before finally letting it rip two minutes in, layering on a dose of ghostly synths. "Besides" is airy and beautiful, electronic noise with the consistency of champagne bubbles married to an acoustic guitar riff and the occasional electric twang. There are moments of cheesy excess, like the syrupy "Colors" and the sometimes hackneyed, cringe-inducing female vocals on "No Turning Back," but so much is happening here that these negatives are reduced, if only by the sheer volume of sounds presented. Take My Breath Away is a heavily populated but still carefully fashioned landscape, never feeling crowded and skipping effortlessly between lush ambience and driving techno. At times it recalls the underrated video game compositions of Yuzo Koshiro, who was equally adept at building elaborate mosaics from dance rhythm tropes, though Boratto is much more of a technician and has more room and desire to explore. "Godet," another quiet piece, closes the album on a heavy tide of major piano chords, reminding us that though it's a dance album at heart, Take My Breath Away's mind is elsewhere....full text |
| Dustedmagazine |
| São Paulo’s Gui Boratto surprised many with his unassuming debut album Chromophobia two years ago. On the backs of molar-rattling, tightly-coiled sides of titanium-plated techno, Boratto delivered a disc that was equal parts laid-back wallows and hopscotch agility, all of it glistening with vivid melodies. But from the stridently Floydian gravitas of its cover to the ponderous, tolling piano notes that close the album, Take My Breath Away finds Boratto straining uncomfortably to make some kind of serious statement. It’s no wonder that, in the process, he sometimes winds up evoking the dramatic grandeur and vacant uplift of the ‘80s arena vanguard (U2, Depeche Mode, the Cure). Once again going half-and-half, Take My Breath Away starts on the dancefloor but soon retires to the window sill. Opening with a one-two smack – sigh-to-a-scream title track is a fine warm up for gassier, first single “Atomic Soda” – the album puffs, drips and ticks with clockwork effectiveness. Still, it’s not all about precision. When the electronic cord that groans ominously for the first five minutes of “Atomic Soda” is slashed open, its effusion of rogue voltage nearly obliterates the track. Amid the crunchy clicks and cracking gears, “Opus 17” has a queasy waft of melody that sounds like carsick Depeche Mode....full text |
| Drownedinsound |
| Take My Breath Away is the third album, following the 2004 apprentice-work Royal House and 2007’s superb Chromophobia, from Brazilian producer Gui Boratto. Two years ago, the latter record stood out from the minimalist crowd like go-faster stripes on a hearse, reconstituting the trancier elements of progressive house that the dominant Berlin scene had been industriously stripping away with an inventiveness and enthusiasm that showed all roads to melody needn’t be paved with cheese. With minimal house running low on inspiration of late, the scene as a whole has moved towards Boratto’s sound – god knows, he’s done enough remixes in the last couple of years to shift it all by himself – so Take My Breath Away can be seen as falling into difficult second album territory (provided, that is, you ignore the fact it’s his third). Not that the pressure seems to tell at first, the title track kicking things off with a bracing, embracing synth line that unfurls magisterially above a bumping bass pulse and a satisfyingly clicky, ever-evolving drum pattern. If Chromophobia tended to celebrate the exhilarating pleasures of fidgety, dark-room techno, 'Take My Breath Away' seems designed to roll out over huge fields of twilit dancers....full text |
Gui Boratto lyrics
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