Gradient: Dispersing Sectors
Rednetic Recordings

Rednetic's three-inch series continues with three tracks by Gradient (Saint Petersberg-based Igor Arsenjev). Dub-techno's influence clearly knows no bounds, as the twenty minutes of material by the Russian Federation resident handily shows. It's icy dub-techno of the Basic Channel kind, polished and sleek in a way that's more Berlin bunker than Trenchtown studio. Opener “Membrana” brings an enticingly funky little hiccup to its 4/4 rhythms, and though it slowly gains force via the subtle rise of a build-up the track never loses its calming vibe. The title track opts for a jaunty feel in the way it undergirds vaporous smears with a lightly rolling schaffel-like swing but then grows progressively into a marching strut as the sound field fills in with chordal flourishes. Swathed in a blanket of hiss, “Duplex” plunges even deeper into the dub-techno bath in its pairing of a low-riding pulse and insistent melodic flourishes. Modest in ambition but a satisfying mini-set nevertheless, Dispersing Sectors doesn't advance the genre template but neither does it purport to do so.

January 2010