P058: Cabeza de Vaca – Dub techno

No voice over this week as tpart pf the studio had been removed to do some live recordings and due to the busy schedule elsewhere, there was no time to re-record. But there is an unmixed dub techno special this week on Cabeza de Vaca and Scanner FM  instead of the promised Laurel Halo show which will be next week if all goes well.

Not too much needs to be added except that there was enough material for two dub techno shows so the extra material I will highlight here, plus one or two details from this week’s show.

First up is Santiago Naura aka Bleak, another promising Spanish artist with releases on Delsin, Deeply Rooted House and recently on Secret Sundaze as well. His opening track comes from a various artists 12” on French label Concrete Music. His other tracks are less dubby perhaps, but his take on dub techno gives a bit of tempo at the expense of a bit f patience maybe, especially the opening. But the arc of the tracks evolution is excellent.

Also from Spain is the recent Reeko vs Architectural album, a concise, direct and brilliantly crafted modern techno album. It switches styles without seeming lost and it focuses on the dance floor without losing a home listening cohesiveness and flow. One of the year’s highlights for sure and more tracks from this coming up in future shows I hope.

Staying on the Peninsula s something new from Downliners Sekt. Their debut album will be out early in 2014 on InFiné and judging by their recent 12” it should be an interesting release. Both tracks on “Balt Shakt” are much more mature than their previous 12” on InFiné which was well made, but perhaps a bit derivate. “Balt Shakt” works with the same elements but feels more mature.

The Spanish label Non-Series (NON) have also delivered some good tracks lately. On the show we play something from German producer Savas Pastilidis who is also running the Lasergun and Sweatshop labels.

The hypothetical second show was going to feature something more recently from Spanish artist Maan aka Manuel Anós in the form of several remixes of his earlier single for the label. There is also a new Eduardo de la Calle out just now too.

And at last we get something from Cologne’s Telrae imprint, a sublabel of the Traum family, on the show after many attempts! This time from newcomer Andrea Cichecki. Another artist from their roster is Reimut van Bonn who has something very new out now on the label

In our hypothetical second show, he was also going to open with a track from hi “Gradient” EP, in this case the long CPH remix, shown here in extract form.

Prolific Lithuanian producer Grad_U aka Aleksandr Martinkevič has just had a pair of 12”s out on his own Redscale label, a project which started last year around the time of his last CDr on the related Greyscale label. Martinkevič has also released on some of the classic dub techno labels like ZeECc            and Entropy Records.

Lars Fenin also returned this year with another fine album of electronic dub-pop on Shitkatapult. As on several previous outings he once again works with vocalists on several tracks to excellent effect. “Heartware” also proves again that he has enough ideas to keep his sound moving and keep it interesting, although there is perhaps less dub than on previous outings and more of his own voice. I still feel he is a producer who deserves a bit more commercial and critical recognition than he is afforded ad we are always happy to have something new from him.

It is worth mention the Deepchord track “Barcelona” from their most recent album “20 Electrostatic Soundfields”.

Here Rod Modell mixes hazy late night ambience with field recordings, presumably recorded in Barcelona as there are Spanish voices, which is pretty much the method for the rest of the album as well. Not so much dub techno as soundscapes then. Modell’s work has been edging that way anyway, with his film soundtrack to “Silent World” for example, which curiously also features a track  called “BCN Dub” that also appeared on the “Liumin” album from 2010 which may be a version of the same track although far more “rockier”.

Nicole Moudaber’s album is hardly dub techno, and more a solid brand of heavy minimal, unbending and direct and full of guts and style. Yet there is a very nice dub-leaning track “Movin’ on” that would have been in the second show.

Finally, we close off from another track from Genotype who we also featured on the Drum n Bass show. This is the last track from the album which is a beautiful closer. Plenty of detail and deep vibes throughout. The rest of the album is a joy as well.

Number	Artist	Track	Label	Year
1	Bleak	What are we made of	Concrete Music	2013
2	Andrea Cichecki	Subjective	Telrae	2013
3	Grad_U	EV 3	Redscale	2013
4	Reeko w/ Architectural	Dualities	Pole Recordings	2013
5	Savas Pascalidis	Mechanic	Non Series	2012
6	Fenin	Same pictures	Shitkatapult	2013
7	Downliners Sekt	Balt Shakt Part 2	Infiné	2013
8	Genotype	Trick or Beatz	Samurai Red Seal	2013
9	Deepchord	Barcelona	Soma	2013

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P043: Cabeza de Vaca – Dub techno special.

It has been a long time since we had a dub techno show on Cabeza de Vaca, but that is the subject of this weeks show over at Scanner FM .

Though it must be said that several of the artists on the show this week approach the sound, rather than really recapitulate it to its true definitions and indeed this has been one of the advantages and disadvantages of dub techno over the years. It has been a limited genre in many ways in that it necessitates adhering to a particular formula to work at its best and its esching of dance floor for atmosphere has often led it to be marginalised from the clubs to home listening. While this dependence on formula is necessary to maximise the advabtages of its particular mechanisms, it has also lead to a lack of innovation at times. The opposite is also true however, that the lack of club expectation allows it to grow in different directions and its dependence on atmosphere instead of rhythmic mechanisms also gives it greater scope for silene, experimentation and even emotion.

There is a little bit of everything on this weeks show.

Freund der Familie are a good case in point. Their recent album “Alfa” on their own label almost totally ignores the dance floor and looks only to mine a lot of atmospheric space at low BPM and using a different array of beat templates. The track we play is more dub step in approach, but the album is a diverse affair with plenty of other highlights like the vocal lead “Goldie Wilson”.

One thing that FDFs album has in common with S|EXP (Shaded Explorer) is a good balance between long and short tracks. One of the mistakes of dub techno in the past ahs always been of the notion that longer equals better when quite often the tracks have said all they need to say after 4-5 minutes. Of course there is nothing like a long, monged bliss out to dub techno, but you still need special tracks to go long distances and it is nice to see a few artists try and piece their albums together in a more considred way. “Shade’s Journey” (Eclipemusic, 2013) has one long track, “Atlantis” and the rest come in at much less. The flow is thus a bit faster and also varied, with a constant flux of textures and beat pressure.

There is also a few Spanish artists and/or labels on the show today. Exium also deliver a short and sweet track to open the show, also the opening track off their recent album “A Sensible Alternative to Emotions”. The album is a lot more vigorous than the more atmospheric opener “Dronid” as we also saw last week.

There is also something new from BLD an otherwise unknown Barcelona-based artist. His track reminds me a lot of the early Basic Channel track “Lyot (Maurizio mix)” for the rhythmic interaction, but BLD is a bit smoother and modern, whereas the original has that classic crashing warehouse drum sound.

Barcelona’s Subwax BCN label also continues its steady release run. We feature at rack from their dub techno label by SAM who has connections to the Fathers and Sons Productions label.

Orlando Voorn also had an album out recently on the Subwax house sublabel Subwax Excursions.

Sweden's Skyscaper  (Anders Peterson) also has a recent and fascinating album called “Atmospheric Stratification” of which we will play another track in the near future. Again, a little unconventional as far as albums go, with five original and five remixed tracks.

Skyscaper – Atmospheric Stratification album preview

Number	Artist	Track	Label	Year
1	Exium	Dronid	Pole Recordings	2013
2	S|EXP (Shaded Explorer)	Distant horizon	Eclipsemusic	2013
3	BLD	Before deep	BLD Tape Recordings	2013
4	Subjected	Concept 3	Vault Series	2013
5	SAM	Nangilima	SubWax BCN	2013
6	QY	Hokus	Blank Slate	2013
7	Freund der familie	Colombia	Freund der familie	2013
8	Skyscaper	Atmospheric Tide (Mindspan Remix)	Ghost Sounds	2013
9	Refracted	Along a ghostly trail	Silent Season	2013

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