Deborah De Luca fuses hard techno and pop on Hard Pop

Grit runs through it, but so does polish. Hard Pop blends hard techno’s edge with pop’s shine — two sounds that don’t usually share a record. It’s Deborah De Luca’s third studio album, out now via Solamente, the label she’s run herself since 2018. Twenty-five tracks. 139 minutes and 57 seconds total. It opens on ‘Nero’ and moves through cuts like ‘Techno Fever’ and ‘Jungle.’

De Luca has been releasing music since 2011. The album caps a decade-plus stretch that’s carried her from club dates to major festival stages worldwide. The label has also carried releases from Giorgio Rusconi, Diego Negretti and Mac N Dan.

Hard techno anchors most of the record. Its roots sit in the Neapolitan techno scene she came up through. Pop breaks in throughout. It pulls in guest turns from the likes of Valeria Mancini, Fabio Villani, Geolier and emma. Mancini turns up on several cuts, including ‘Superstar’. Villani also features on ‘Voce’. ‘Message for my ex’ and ‘Survivor’, both credited to De Luca alone, round out the set.