Marco Carola: Play It Loud!

Not a single organic sound is on it, and yet there’s a certain breathless drive on Marco Carola’s Play It Loud!, like a sweaty, bug-eyed raver who just won’t quit. The Italian technocrat, known for his style tourism, has landed on minimal house this time, and everything from the titular instructions to the complete lack of hooks shows that he intends on playing the part. These are beats for beats’ sake, and they don’t let up. If that sounds like it might be monotonous, it is — but that’s to be expected. The record’s palate of polyrhythm and negative space forges a circuit directly to your hips and feet with nary a pause to slow things down. Play it loud to hear how smart it is. Even when it’s dumb, its purity is awe-inspiring.