Mark Masguro’s ‘B-Emo – To be Emotional is not a Suggestion It is the Lifestyle’ is the kind of record that grips you with both hands. Across fourteen tracks, the Zürich-based producer pulls from decades of underground club culture and cinematic sound design to craft something that feels at once nostalgic and brand new. It’s a debut that thrives on contradiction: tender but thunderous, danceable yet introspective, steeped in memory but reaching for the future.
Rather than chasing trends, Masguro excavates his own musical past with echoes of Italo-disco, the pulse of ‘90s trance, the grit of acid house, and reanimates them in widescreen. ‘Whispers’ stands out as the emotional centre, a track that bathes listeners in swirling synths and ghostlike melodies that feel like they’re rising from a half-remembered dream. On the other end of the spectrum, ‘Devil’s Trap’ leans into jagged edges as Kael Sott’s vocals cut across Beatman’s ominous backdrop, making for one of the album’s grittiest and most arresting moments.
What elevates ‘B-Emo’ isn’t just Masguro’s encyclopedic grasp of electronic textures but the conviction behind it. These don’t feel like genre exercises, instead they feel like they’re transformations of old DNA spliced with new emotions. Ariana Celaeno’s contributions bring warmth and gravity to Masguro’s icy synth landscapes, while his meticulous home-studio layering ensures each track pulses with both body and spirit.
There’s also something deeply cinematic about the project. Listening front to back feels like traversing a neon-lit highway at night, headlights bouncing off rain-slick streets. It’s no accident that Masguro warns listeners not to drive too fast during the final track, the momentum is that real.
With ‘B-Emo’, Masguro proves that emotion is the engine that drives us forward. This is music for the ones who find catharsis in basslines, who want their nostalgia reimagined as propulsion, and who believe that being moved on the dancefloor is every bit as valid as being moved in a confessional booth.
