There is an enormous story that goes with the D.O.C. EP, which is the final EP in a trilogy from Swiss DJ and producer Marco Repetto. These tracks were originally composed between 1991 and 1992, culled from an archive that consisted of an estimated 146 hours of music on DATs handed over by Repetto to Michiel from label return_backspace to sort through in a process that sounds more like archival research and preservation than traditional A&R.

Eventually return_backspace got it down to three EPs of three tracks each, released over two years with the May 2023 release of D.O.C. marking the project’s culmination. The format was purposeful — to release “a well-balanced selection of tracks, divided over three extended plays, with each EP having its distinctive own feel and ‘character,'” according to return_backspace. “Even at that early stage [when the tracks were first recorded], Marco’s work was utterly versatile.”

This is obviously a labor of love but also a rite of revival: Repetto is hailed by knowledgeable electronic music aficionados for that “utterly versatile” aesthetic that began when he was beating the ground as a punk rock drummer in the late 1970s and culminated something like 40 years later with 2019’s Fables of Robotic album that reached a new generation of fans, some wholly unfamiliar with his early works, drafts and variations of which evolved in captured time somewhere on those 146 hours of tape.

“I was ‘lonely’ with my music,” Repetto says, “as no one seemed to understand what I was doing.” That solitary isolation is most deeply felt on the first two EPs, New Era and Adamha, which fall into a dreamlike ambient haze at a moments notice between bouts of hedonistic full moon techno jams. The D.O.C. EP, the last release, is the most polished and single-minded of the three. It’s a sound that’s of its time but, of late, of our time too.

“To me it felt extremely futuristic to work with drumcomputers, synthesizers and samplers,” Repetto says. “‘Sequencer’ was like a magic word.” These are obviously the thoughts of someone more emotionally tied to the music than any stranger will be, but I think some of that wide-eyed wonder and sense of adventure is locked in these tracks from Marco Repetto’s vaults.

⚪️ Tracklisting

Planet Love: New Era / Adamha / D.O.C. (return_backspace / 12" vinyl x 3)
New Era EP
1. new era (03:13)
2. flowers (04:23)
3. bird song (04:09)
Adamha EP
1. creator's planet (05:52)
2. adamha (03:57)
3. the blue dream (05:40)
D.O.C. EP
1. d.o.c. (04:35)
2. technicolor dream (04:48)
3. the last realm of magic (04:58)

⚪️ Disclosure Statement

This record was submitted as a promo.

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TIME CAPSULE: This was originally published in 5 Mag Issue #207 featuring Joyce Muniz’s Zeitkapsel, Fred Everything, how to save a landmark, the AI that is eating streaming alive, Conrad Colson, LF System and more. Help keep our vibe alive and our shine bright by becoming a member for $2/month and get every issue in your inbox right away!