Echonaut: Satya
Arctic Dub

Floating Machine: Nowhere
Arctic Dub

Those strong, chilly winds that blow through Deepchord and Echospace releases also roll through these recent EPs from Arctic Dub, a Minneapolis-raised and Portugal-based label specializing in dub techno, ambient, and experimental forms. Founded by Dave Wesley, the label's been operating for ten years as of 2018 and given the evidence at hand sounds like it's in fine shape indeed.

One of the three releases is Wesley's Anja Cerração Ligeira EPv1, of which he states, “If this release was a film, it would depict a foggy drive through rural Portugal.” Well, foggy it most certainly is; comprised of three cuts, it's one of the most windswept releases I've ever heard. Seething winds swirl incessantly throughout the epic opener “Anja Cerração Ligeira Session v1,” a nine-minute, deeply atmospheric exercise in sustained disorientation where dubby chords determinedly burble, echo, and flicker regardless of the granular storm raging around them; a heaving bass pulse is likewise present, though its thrust is as much felt as heard. Clubbier by comparison is “Anja Cerração Ligeira Glimmer v1,” which works a locomotive, bass-throbbing chug in amongst the ever-rippling vapours. Male and female speaking voices seep into it and “Anja Cerração Ligeira Resistance v1,” respectively, but largely as scene-setters, the primary concentration being on the multi-dimensional instrumental design. The latter cut, an amazing example of ambient scene-painting, shifts the focus back to the listening lounge, even if a bass pulse struggles in vain to pull the material back onto the dance floor, the desire perhaps driven by, as per the accompanying text, the “distant strains of an epic rave raging in the distance.”

The winds might die down on Bob Brass's Echonaut outing Satya, but the five tracks are no less engaging; if anything, stripping away the atmospheric elements allows the beatific sound design of his EP to come through in all its echo-drenched glory. Though those chunky chords that scatter across the insistent clockwork rhythms of “Samasebo,” for instance, might be straight out of the minimal dub-techno playbook, they entrance nonetheless; even better, “Satya Yuga” plays like the greatest lost Chain Reaction cut ever, the clangorous stepper so reminiscent of Various Artists' Decay Product and Substance's Session Elements opuses it'll have you thinking it's 1997 all over again. The way “Bardo Cycle” opens, I almost thought Brass was about to treat us to an Echonaut version of Eno's “Needles in the Camel's Eye,” but it turns out the opening notes are pretty much the only thing they have in common—which isn't cause for complaint, mind you, as the heaving, bottom-heavy behemoth Brass has served up is perfectly fine as it is; it also, interestingly, closes the gap between his and Wesley's releases by allowing a thick cloud of static and fuzz to appear alongside the track's convulsive groove. Adding to the four Echonaut originals is a “Bardo Cycle” remix by Substak (Greek producer Kostas Staikos) that ups the club ante by adding a thudding kick drum to the gaseous smears.

Wesley would appear to have found a kindred spirit in Floating Machine (António Lourenço), at least if his four-track debut (one cut a suitably deep dub-techno remix by Existente) for the label is representative of his work. Nowhere begins, appropriately enough, with the lumbering mass “Arctic Wind,” whose dense squalls roar with as almost as much force as those on “Anja Cerração Ligeira Session v1”; there's a stronger rhythm presence at work in Lourenço's production, however, which helps ground the material and mitigate its abstract character. That said, Nowhere's atmospheric material dazzles on sound design grounds, with Lourenço demonstrating no small amount of artistry in his meticulously assembled constructions. The EP's also not without a surprise or two, as exemplified by the gently glimmering melodic details that emerge so unexpectedly in the title track. Still, as strong as they are, it's the masterful “Unresolv” that makes the biggest impression, largely on account of its driving, bass-thumping swing and ever-percolating chords.

March 2018