Almo's Music Blog

Dub Techno is a notoriously difficult genre of music in which to differentiate one’s self as a composer. With a fairly narrow definition of what Dub Techno is, it’s difficult to make many alterations to the form without finding yourself outside it. This isn’t a complaint or a criticism of the form, just something I’ve noticed over the last 15 or so years of listening to it. For those already familiar with the genre, you might consider skipping down to the part that focuses on Liuos’s place in this area. What is Dub Techno? If you’re not familiar with it, here are a few classic examples of Dub Techno (from here on out “DT”). 1994: Cyrus - “Inversion” (A Basic Channel track from the inventors of DT)  https://youtu.be/1_BvEKRzlns 2010: Zzzzra - “Helicologie”  Helicologie | Entropy Records 2012: Submersion - “Isolate Obliterate”  Isolate Obliterate | Submersion 2013: Ohrwert - “Asphere”  Asphere | Entropy Records 2014: Deepchord - “Red Lantern (Parts 1 and 2)”  Red ...

I get notifications from a label that specializes in Dub Techno and Ambient music, Cold Tear Records . They are based in Lithuania, and have a treasure trove of hidden gems in their catalogue. Since I have bought something from them, I get emails whenever they release something. This has been a great boon to my music collection, and this review covers one of those releases. Negative Ions is a 4-track EP from Liuos (the recording name of Jari Österberg), an artist from Finland; it's available at Bandcamp . When I first queued this up, I immediately liked it. It's got both a heavy and bouncy vibe to it, if that makes any sense. The bass is thick, the kick drum has a crisp tone reminding us of the bottom note of the key signature, and the rhythms above give it a lot of liveliness. Just a few specific notes: Synoptic Scale includes some traditional Reggae rhythms in it, signaling Dub Techno's roots in Jamaican Dub. While I don't have a comment about Nacreous Clouds, it...

It has been a while since I ran into an album that I had to listen to over 10 times to really like. This usually means there's something subtle going on, so it's worth writing about it. Part of the reason this is so interesting is the history of the artist who composed it. So this review will be broken into two parts: one with a brief history leading up to it, and one with the review. Where did Minute of Arc come from? It is one of the monikers of Arjen Schat, an artist residing in the Netherlands. His previous output was released under two names: "Ohrwert", and "Arjen Schat". Ohrwert releases were either Dub Techno, heavy Ambient, or somewhere between the two, while Arjen Schat releases were Ambient or Sequential Ambient. Being Dub Techno, the Ohrwert releases usually had consistent beats with minimalist dubbiness layered on top. But there was a breadth the styles used that meant Ohrwert's catalog was anything but narrow; a notable exception was t...

I've been a longtime fan of Plaster's work: it's usually dark and brooding with a harsh industrial edge that I really like. The occasional times when light breaks into the gloom benefit from still having an edge to their treatment. Here are some examples that show what I mean: Component and Intersection from Platforms (2011). When he announced that there would be another release in 2018, I was pretty stoked. Expectations were high, and I was not disappointed. However, I was certainly surprised. While not all previous Plaster releases that I have heard have beats, most of them do. Transition is an entirely beatless affair, and that caught me totally off guard. I like it when an artist is able to challenge my idea of what their music is like, and succeed. It also makes more use of melody than much of Plaster's previous work. It's not that melody was never used, but it was not common. In order to give the reader a broader idea of the change this release represen...

Sometime around 2011, I bumped into Waveform Transmission's "V1.0-V1.9" release, which is a really interesting Dark Ambient album. It's quite obscure and hard-to-find, so I found a download on an obscure music blog in order to listen to the whole thing before trying to hunt down a CD to buy. Rod Modell worked on that, and when I hunted for his other stuff, I first found Dub Techno. Going back to the music blog, the author had just posted that he was listening to some quality Dub Techno by Ohrwert, called "Yesteryear". This was my first introduction to the musical world of Arjen Schat, a composer from the Netherlands who works in several different genres of electronic music. Over the years since finding his music, I've been quite interested to see how his styles have evolved. Recently I felt I had enough understanding to do an interview with him to get some inside information on how he works. He was kind enough to answer my questions; many thanks to him...

A while back, a netlabel whose music I like to listen to mailed me to say there was this release: https://coldtearrecords.bandcamp.com/track/summer-rain It's part of a 6-track album, and it immediately struck me as an amazing piece of music. It starts with something that is pretty common in music that includes field recordings: 30 seconds of rain. It sets the mood well for what is to come. The type of rain in the recording and the first hints of percussion suggest light summer rain, as opposed to a deluge. The first two synth elements to arrive are in minor key, and continue the gentle nature of the sounds. The first is a little sharper, the second has a cleaner and more rounded sound. Already there's a nice mix of sound types, and that variety continues as it goes. The kick drum shows up along with another new synth sound, this one more melodic than the previous ones. Around 1:30 the rain is fading out, as yet another synth element is added to the mix. This one is ...