Oscpllex: Void
Arctic Dub (Sursumcorda)
VA:
Arctic Dub (Sursumcorda): Compilation v6
Arctic Dub (Sursumcorda)
With material compiled by Gabi von Dub and mastered by Dave Wesley, Arctic Dub's sixth compilation builds on last year's fifth with an even more encompassing set. Much like before, ambient, techno, and dub-related productions appear, this time by thirteen artists from Portugal and beyond. You certainly get your money's worth: the fourteen tracks check in at two hours, the total bolstered by framing pieces lasting sixteen and fourteen minutes at a time. Giving one's full attention to the comp proves, not surprisingly, to be immersive, especially when so many of the creators push the sound associated with Basic Channel, Chain Reaction, and echospace into similarly expansive textural zones.
Coppice Halifax (Brian Grainger) eases the set into place with sixteen minutes of entrancing drift called “Autumn Contrast,” its rustling noises and gentle vapours suggestive of a sleepy harbour in the pre-dawn hours. Wesley intensifies Coppice Halifax's opener on the even more oceanic “Idiomas Compreendidos (Hikikomori)” without betraying its relaxed vibe. Grainy, static-encrusted textures and occasional noise ruptures ripple alongside a sleepy shuffle for eight minutes, with micro-snippets of guitar, bass, and (what sounds like) electric piano folded into the design.
An abrupt shift in tone occurs with the advent of ashawa's “Interacting Organic Algorithms 001,” a dub-techno workout that springs into action immediately and stays there for the duration. Things turn funky when Peterr's “Ri” couples a thumping micro-pulse with syncopated house chords and inch ever closer to the club floor with Twin Peetz's (Patrick Peetz) electro-dazzler “Blissful Hours.” For the deepest of dubheads, the undertow of SUBSET's hiss-smothered “Mobula” should prove irresistible; for ambient lovers there's Edward Bei's trippy, free-flowing “Oumuamua” and Private Mountain's (Dimitar Dodovski and Toni Dimitrov) field recordings-inflected “16 May, 2019.” The first of two Whalt Thisney (Fernando Cerqueira) contributions, “Thisdembodies1” opts for far-reaching panoramas that are more space-ambient than ambient-dub, the second “Amnesia” peaceful by comparison. At set's end, Wesley returns under the Xerography alias to cap the collection with a final ambient soundscape, “Unauthorized Edition 20190512 (Tainted By Reddit).”
Interestingly, Oscpllex (Guo Fei) doesn't appear on the compilation, though a track by the Shanghai-based producer would have sounded right at home. For thirty-four blustery minutes, seething winds engulf Void, the EP advancing from the scene-setting “Vapour” to the rhythmically charged “Orbit,” whose semi-buried pulse chugs with locomotive intent. An arc of sorts begins to crystallize with the onset of “Illusion” and its even more muscular bottom end; the combination of booming kick drums and ricocheting electronics nudges the track into a rave zone without betraying the Arctic Dub aesthetic. The storm doesn't let up but if anything grows more consuming when violent ripples lacerate “Desolation” and the mood grows even more hallucinogenic than before. To be expected, decompression sets in with the closing title track, a relatively subdued soundscape of gentle swirl and controlled rumblings. Like the label's material in general, Oscpllex's five ever-turbulent pieces are vortexes within which elements collide without ever escaping. A natural complement to the compilation, needless to say.June 2020