VA: Arctic Dub V4
Arctic Dub Records
Portugal-based Arctic Dub Records (Sursumcorda) celebrates ten years of existence with this encompassing, sixteen-track compilation. Though it's not necessarily, one presumes, the specific intent of the release, it clearly shows that dub techno and ambient dub offer its practitioners stylistic possibilities that are exceptionally rich. Tracks with rhythmic heft sit comfortably alongside explorative ambient exercises, the common factor in all cases meticulous attention to detail and texture. Stylistic contrasts notwithstanding, each setting presents an engrossing electronic panorama that fully engages the senses.
Artists from the Portugal region are included, but so too are artists from around the world. The Lisbon-based Desterronics collective is represented by two sprawling, rather trippy soundscapes, and label debuts from Ekoda (USA), Evolverman (Ireland), and Swiss Magnetic (UK) appear also. The collection's packed with ultra-textured dub techno workouts sure to satisfy lovers of all things Basic Channel, and as the material flooded the room I sometimes found my thoughts drifting back to Vladislav Delay's early Entain, Multila, and Anima releases when many of the compilation's pieces exemplify a similar kind of free-floating, hazy quality. Other tracks are more rhythm-focused, among them ocp's skanking “Lazy Dub,” Naus's churning stepper “Menir,” Ekoda's techno-fied “Caustic Ambitions,” and Swiss Magnetic's “Edifice,” whose infectiously grooving swing makes it one of the set's more club-ready cuts.
Certain elements surface repeatedly in these sixteen productions, things such as synthesizers, voice samples, and heavy doses of echo and reverb, which gives the release a cohesive quality absent from many a compilation. An arc of sorts is also discernible, with ambient settings dominant in the early going and a larger share of rhythm-driven cuts featured in the set's second half.
Arctic Dub V4's that rare case where were one to listen to it straight through without interruption one might almost begin to think of it as the product of a single artist than fifteen. Of course there are differences—no one likely will confuse Holldën's “Arrifana,” which features seagull cries peppering a punchy, staccato pulse, with “Eight Plane Polyhedron,” a multi-tiered assemblage of muffled voices and dubbed-out rhythms from label founder Dave Wesley—but the properties shared by the sixteen pieces strengthens the impression of unity. For dub techno and ambient dub aficionados, Arctic Dub V4 should probably be regarded as a must-have.July 2018