Master Margherita: Border 50
Ultimae Records

Martin Nonstatic: Ligand Remixes
Ultimae Records

These late-2018 releases from the Lyon, France-based Ultimae Records imprint (founded by Vincent Villuis in 1999) present fresh, deeply atmospheric takes on ambient-dub, electronica, and dub-techno. Though the material exhibits a production sophistication that reflects its recent creation, many a moment calls to mind the clicks-and-cuts era associated with Mille Plateaux and the various styles associated with it. Both releases have been crafted with obvious care, and the production values in both presentation and musical content are high. The Border 50 release not only comes in a multi-panel, fold-out package, it includes a sixteen-page booklet showing photos of geological phenomena.

Challenging expectations, Master Margherita's Border 50 largely eschews epic gestures during its near-eighty-minute ride; instead, Swiss-born Moreno Antognini opts for a slow-burning, meditative journey heavy on slow tempos and evocative atmospheres. The music is less dance-oriented, in other words, and more focused on downtempo dark jazz and stoner rock styles. Crafted over two years, the recording advances through ten parts, the mix as much analog as digital. Sounds of electric guitar, electric bass, drums, and electric keyboard emerge alongside synthesizers as the music drifts across seemingly endless, depopulated lowlands. During “Shruti One (Ambient Mix),” sinuous flute playing by Dan Hooke intensifies the feeling of mysticism, as if barriers are being crossed into hallucinatory zones and slow dazzle settling in. Strip away the reverberant guitar shadings from “Geophilous (Arborescent Mix)” and you've got a serene ambient meditation in the classic Eno style. Animated synthesizer patterns breathe life into “Kivalina (Border 50 Mix),” its activity level hinting at the energized parts to come; the moog-styled timbres that surface in “Alternate Pathway (Alternative 2),” on the other hand, add a prog-like quality to the album.

The album's biggest departure arrives with “Border 50 (Ultimae Dub)” (credited to Master Margherita & The Positronics), which startles in bringing Deadbeat-styled textures and dub-techno swing into the presentation. Ultimately, though the release demands patience and commitment from the listener, the effort is rewarded. It's the kind of recording one must attune oneself to, however: anyone expecting a high-intensity set of club music will be disappointed; the listener coming to it knowing that a long-form atmospheric journey is in the offing will come away satisfied.

Ultimae's other late-2018 release presents a seven-track collection of remixes based on Martin Van Rossum's 2017 Martin Nonstatic release Ligand. In addition to a deep, dub-techno re-edit of the title track by Rossum himself, other tracks were overhauled by Villuis (under his AES Dana alias) and Roel Funcken (of Funckarma renown), among others. Wishing to do more than offer lazy riffs on the originals, the remixers went out of their way to fashion substantive new productions that play like homages to their progenitors, and at close to fifty minutes, the release is more full-length than EP.

The glitchy electronica dimension comes conspicuously to the fore in the brooding Erot (Tore Kofod Hyldahl) remix of “Parallel Thoughts,” though the cut's bass-thudding pulse and enveloping synthetic swirl also draw connecting lines to ambient-dub, minimal techno, and ambient-electronica. António Manuel Da Silva Lourenço retains the deeply atmospheric ambiance of the opener in his Floating Machine treatment of “Variegation” whilst at the same time bolstering the club feel with a muscular, kick drum-driving groove. Scann-Tec (Vladislav Isaev) brings the thunder to his insistent, clubwise remix of “Parabolic View,” while Funcken's fulminating “Ligand” re-rub is a swinging, snare-rattling shape-shifter. With a little help from AES Dana, “Methodical Random” Miktek (Mihalis Aikaterinis) shifts the release's gears by opting for a lumbering downtempo treatment that sounds as much influenced by hip-hop and darkcore as techno. Villuis's own AES Dana take on “Harmonices Mundi” reinstates the aggressive thrust of Floating Machine's “Variegation” while also sneaking subtle smatterings of acid and industrial into its snappy flow.

Don't be surprised if you find yourself hearing echoes of material by Vladislav Delay and Deadbeat as you listen to these productions, Ultimae intent, it would appear, on keeping the traditions associated with such groundbreakers alive.

February 2019