Lorenzo Senni - Scacco Matto (LP)

Lorenzo Senni’s Scacco Matto landed on Warp Records on April 24, 2020, and it still feels like a sly move in a long game he has been playing with trance for more than a decade. The title means checkmate, which suits the way Senni sets up tension and then moves sideways. He strips trance down to bright synth stabs, feints, and held breaths. The usual kick drum thump is gone, so you hear the bones of the style, the way melodies loop and almost, but not quite, tip into euphoria. He once called this approach pointillistic trance, and Scacco Matto is the sharpest version of it.

Senni is Milan based and came up via experimental circles, but Warp gave him a proper home with Persona in 2016. Scacco Matto pushes further. It has the high-gloss gleam of classic supersaw tones, the kind you’d expect to hear at 4 a.m., but there is a rulebook at work. Motifs jab and recoil. Arpeggios glow, then freeze. The rush comes from focus and discipline, not volume. When he finally lets a figure bloom, it feels earned, like he has patiently steered you to a winning line.

Take Discipline of Enthusiasm, the single that teased the album. It is all poised motion. Lines flicker, overlap, and reframe each other, but the drop never arrives. Instead you get a mounting pressure that turns into a kind of grin. That is the trick throughout. He studies the psychology of anticipation and then draws it out just beyond where you think it can go.

Critics picked up on this. Pitchfork noted how he toys with the logic of trance rather than rejecting it, and The Guardian praised the record’s playful rigor. Those reads match what the music does. Scacco Matto respects the history of big-room hooks, then shifts the emphasis from release to the thrill of a held note and a redirected pattern. It feels both austere and oddly giddy. If you lived through the late 90s, you hear familiar DNA. If you came up on experimental electronics, you hear a composer’s ear for subtraction.

The sound design is immaculate. The synths have the airy sheen of hardware, and the stereo field is used like a stage, with phrases bouncing in and out of view. Because percussion is minimal, tiny edits matter. This is the kind of record where a single filter sweep can feel like a scene change. It is not cold, though. Senni writes hooks that stick. You might find yourself humming a line that never actually resolves, which is part of the fun.

On vinyl, these details pop. Scacco Matto vinyl captures the bloom of those upper harmonics and the slight grit that keeps the highs from getting glassy. It is a record that rewards sitting with side A, then flipping and noticing how your ear adjusts to the rules of his game. If you collect Lorenzo Senni vinyl, this one sits nicely next to Quantum Jelly and Persona, showing a clear arc from concept to full-bodied statement. And if you are looking to buy Lorenzo Senni records online, you will find that Warp’s recent pressings are solid, with clean, quiet surfaces that suit the material.

There is also a sly humor running through the album, a quality that keeps it from feeling like a dry exercise. The chess framing is not just a title. You hear gambits, you hear bait, you hear a plan unfold. Senni has said in interviews over the years that he loves the build up with no drop. Here that idea becomes storytelling. The record plays like a match that keeps resetting the board, each time revealing a new tactic.

If you are crate digging for Lorenzo Senni albums on vinyl, this is the one that sparks conversation at home and on specialist dance floors. I have seen heads lean in when a phrase seems ready to explode, only for Senni to pivot and show another gleaming edge. That tension is addictive. It also translates well for headphone listening, where the micro-shifts in tone and timing feel almost physical.

Scacco Matto is a love letter to the structure of rave music and a smart critique of its easy payoffs. It asks for attention, then pays it back with precision and wit. If you are browsing a Melbourne record store or scrolling through vinyl records Australia shops, slipping this into your bag is like choosing a chess set with one piece missing and realizing the game is better for it.