Margot

Margot's ambitious, heady danceable electronica instead picks up on the avant-garde strand that runs through contemporary Italian music, which began with Franco Battiato's electronic experiments of the seventies and weaves its way through the free-wheeling Italo-disco that stood in the shadow of Giorgio Moroder's disco anthems. For Margot, the cinematic sounds of Goblin in particular, the shining stars of Italy's homegrown seventies progressive rock movement, remain a major influence, so much so that they named their 2009 'Goblin EP' in their honour. It seems that nowadays, as in the seventies, the global spotlight may be trained firmly on the synth pioneers of Germany and the UK, but away from the limelight over in Italy the progressive spirit is also alive and well, in the province of Rimini at least...
Which is not to suggest that Margot's sophisticated musical explorations have no connection to the much less exalted medium of the dancefloor, for theirs is also a DJ pedigree that stretches back over 10 years, beginning in Classic Club, Echoes and the internationally-renowned Cocorico in their hometown of Rimini, but soon moving on to take in much of the rest of Italy's indigenous DJ network. Likewise, their fledgling production career has also encountered considerable dancefloor success, not least through 2006's outing for Germany's bombastic Great Stuff, a cover of Soft Cell's 'The Torch' which was retouched by Border Community compadres Extrawelt, popping up on many a mix CD the world over.

But what unites Margot's club and recorded presence is their determination to engage with the dancefloor on their own terms, a fact underlined by the recent evolution of their own unique live- and-DJ-set combination, where Pepe's not unimpressive DJ skills are complemented and modified by the addition of Giaga's own surprisingly fragile and ever-so-slightly-Thom-Yorke-esque live vocals, sound effects and interactive dynamic live versions of their own original material. In 2006 their idiosyncratic production ideals also led them to go it alone with the launch of their own label Margot Records, supplying notable danceworthy highlights by themselves ('Goblin Think', 'Punch') and hometown friend Vaghe Stelle on mp3 and the odd coveted slice of limited vinyl.

Individuality is of course a quality which is highly valued around these parts, which is why after an mp3 demo campaign stretching back to a 2005 slot supporting James Holden and over a year as a staple of Mr Holden's DJ sets it was high time that we narrowed their prolific repertoire down to a winning four track selection that would make up their first Border Community EP: the 'France 2 EP' is the momentous result, and we are confident that there will be many more to follow. Margot already have an impressive legacy of national performances under their belt, despite not exactly toeing the Italian-minimal party line. As the headline-grabbing 'France 2', the atonal harmonics of 'Voci Giaga', the exuberant arpeggios of 'H2' and the heady, disorientating 'Oceano' (as well as a host of other unreleased gems where those came from) are gradually unleashed upon the world, now it is clearly time for the Margot sound to reach out well beyond the borders of their homeland.