Cristian Sarde’s 3 Major Influences For The ‘Professional Dancer’ EP Out Now On Outcast
To celebrate the second release of Turin’s underground imprint Outcast Planet we asked Cristian Sarde about his main influences for the EP
The new EP of Outcast Planet (the label recently born out of the long experience in throwing parties of the Turin based collective Outcast) features five original tracks by another core member of its crew, Cristian Sarde. After the astonishing first EP by Paolo Macri (which we discussed here) featuring a modern, cutting-edge take on underground house sounds, the second follows a similar upfront style reinforcing what we can now refer to as ‘Outcast sound’. Although we also immediately noted a certain referential aesthetic in this record that differs from Outcast Planet 001. The take of Cristian Sarde has a specific 80s and electro synth sound mixed with its modern underground textures. If on one side you have the modern lysergic output of ‘Until My Eyes Fell On Her’, pieces like the title-track unapologetically focus on an italo arpeggio, or we also have ‘Eyesight Wisdom’ putting a quasi-vintage electro sound upfront. In general, we loved how this release is slightly referential while at the same time sounding so current - we thought it was a great moment to ask Cristian of a few of his main influences for this record.
We have to note that Cristian underlined how his main inspiration in music is always his state of mind… Being sad, happy or even bored when working in the studio is what drives his creative inspiration the most. In particular for this EP, it was the period of time he was in. A lot of work plus the time in the studio made for very little sleeping hours… Which surely drove the mood and motive behind the sound of this record. Considering this, it was still so interesting to learn of a few records that inspired the ‘Professional Dancer’ EP and his sound lately, and have a little comment directly from Cristian on each… Enjoy the read!
‘Professional Dancer’ is available now on all the major online record shops. Buy here.
Japanese Telecom - Virtual Geisha (She Interacts)
This record I found 2 or 3 years ago in an historical record shop in Turin. What striked me the most are its synth, clearly 80s inspired but combined with an electro sound from the 2000s. This is the kind of hybrid between 80s sounds and modern synths which influenced me so much. This together with the one by Marcello are probably the ones that inspired the A1 ‘Professional Dancer’.
Der Zyklus - Elektronisches Zeitecho
I found out about this record thanks to a good friend of mine - a rather electro sound but not at all 80s focused this time, instead it’s much more breakbeat in the way that I love. I was inspired by this beat massively for the final track of the record, the B3 ‘About Clifford’. Not for its composition, but for the sound in the specific, this was very influential.
Infinity Night - Marcello
This record I found because I was buying records from Ken K (mostly straight up electro records, very hard and good for dancefloors). On Discogs I basically went through all of his discography, many times also buying records without a preview being available, and found this amazing release on another name (Marcello), fairly recent but with an impressive sound (I was struck by how clean the sound output is in this one). To be honest, it’s not a record I would play, but as I said it was still a major inspiration for the sound of the A1.
