Review: The ever-busy Rod Modell has a new album due on Soma later this month. Ahead of that set - his fourth for Slam's long-running label - he's decided to put out this taster 12". Curiously, though Atmospherica Volume 1 doesn't contain any tracks from that album, instead serving up three new treats. 12-minute A-side "Fargo" is undoubtedly the star attraction, offering a chunkier-than-usual take on his weed-enhanced dub techno grooves, paranoid textures and loopy electronics. "CMOS Therapy" is even more up-tempo in feel, with urgent rhythms, surging motifs and notably fizzing cymbals. Finally, "Night Song" sees Modell trek deep into the jungle for inspiration, returning with a muddy chunk of dub techno humidity.
Review: One of the best compliments you can pay a minimal techno producer is that they have an ability to make a lot with few elements. While Deepchord's layered, textured sound could be described as maximal techno, on this release for Soma, its simplicity is its strength. In reality, not much happens over the course of the ten-minute plus "Luxury 1", yet its dubby beats, sub-aquatic chords and occasional diversions into dreamy reveries is over before the listener realises it. "Luxury 2" is more dance floor-friendly, but despite this, the break beats are gentle and unassuming and the melodies subtle yet insidious. It makes for a straightforward but seductive combination.
Review: Few producers do the dub techno sound better than Rod Modell and on this second Atmospherica instalment, he shows why he is so revered. "Exploring The North" is dense and subdued, the hisses and crackles ebbing and flowing fluidly over a powerful sub-bass. "Pinewood Lodge" is more atmospheric and floaty, its chords flitting about like fireflies over a camp fire on the first night of autumn. Rounding out the release is "Shot Point". Immersive, hypnotic and ghostly, it washes through the speakers like waves crashing on a deserted beach at midnight. This is electronic music that is designed to get lost in.
Review: Deepchord serves us the second taster of his upcoming full-length, 'Functional Extraits', out later this year, piling on yet newer layers of texture to his trademark dub techno sound. On this sneak preview EP, 'Glyphs' pulsates through a bed of rattlesnake shakes, swirling ambience, and thunderous knocks, as though it's documenting some bioorganic brain's inner workings. 'Orbitals' entrances us further, inviting us into a melancholic garage rave submerged in a gas giant, while 'Leafiness' barely utters a kick through its emulsive pulses.
Review: A welcome return from Deepchord, who shows the newset of dub techno players how, exactly, it is done. After 5 years, he returns to Soma Records with 'Functional Extraits 1' here, charting shuffly and subtle trips through echoic hallways ('Mapping') and rain-pattered biomech rainforests ('Shale'), and scanning the post-Earth wasteland for any semblance of a real reggae chord. With the final track almost entirely consisting of texture and bass, we can happily declare this to be next-level dub techno.
Review: After a slew of teasers out earlier this year, Deepchord (Rod Modell) eases ever deeper into his overarching chordal masterscape, continuing the 'Functional' theme expressed in his music in recent years. Functional Designs is first full-length LP from the producer in five years, and the teaser 'Strangers' promises more musical development than ever before heard from the enigmatic Detroit producer. It might be best describable as 'progressive dub techno'; airier and more breathable than his early, more subdued works, we're thoroughly impressed by the movement from percussive resonances ('Strangers') to fully ambient finites ('Drassanes').
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