Articles
Spotlight 10
Ten Favourite Labels 2013

Albums
52 Commercial Road
Chantal Acda
David Åhlén
Daniel Bortz
Peter Broderick
Brass Mask
bvdub / bvdub & loscil
Colorlist
Dale Cooper Quartet
Cuushe
Jack Dangers
Deco
Deetron
DFRNT
Egbert
The Foreign Exchange
Nils Frahm
Bjarni Gunnarsson
Robert Haigh
Marihiko Hara & Polar M
John Heckle
Arve Henriksen
Joy Wellboy
Kaboom Karavan
KILN
Land of Kush
Jessy Lanza
Last Days
L.B. Dub Corp
Lights Dim with Gallery Six
Livity Sound
Moskitoo
MUfi.re
Oddisee
Om Unit
Ø [Phase]
Raudive
Matana Roberts
Sakamoto + Deupree
Secret Pyramid
Quentin Sirjacq
Sleeper
Sonicbrat
Special Request
Stratosphere & Serries
Thisquietarmy
Ricardo Tobar
Tom Trago

Compilations / Mixes
Foundland
In The Dark
Mathias Kaden

EPs / Cassettes / Singles
Anduin
Anile / Lm1 & Kharm
Cursa
Gerwin & Nuage ft. 2Shy
Hessien
Jon McMillion
Miaou

CD-Vinyl-DVD
Seaman and Tattered Sail

Deco: Timescales
Deceast

Timescales is one of the most immaculately produced albums one is likely to hear in 2013, as Los Angeles-based Matt Rosenzweig (aka Deco) shows repeatedly throughout this high-quality collection of wide-ranging bass music. As an arranger and soundsculptor, Rosenzweig impresses mightily on his debut Deco album (also the first full-length release on the Deceast label, which he founded in 2009), with each of the album's thirteen tracks showcasing a masterful sensitivity to layering, pacing, and sequencing. Originally a college radio DJ in Atlanta, Rosenzweig moved to LA in 2006 where he became a resident DJ for Insomniac before shifting his focus to the kind of studio production work that would eventually result in Timescales. Drawing upon influences like King Tubby, Deep Medi Musik, and Definitive Jux, Rosenzweig works hard at developing his Deco voice in the album's material.

“Skyline 3040” effectively establishes the album's widescreen style when it progressively assembles layers of synthetic sounds and loping beats into a panoramic portrait of some future urban paradise. Here and elsewhere, Rosenzweig builds the tracks into spacious soundscapes of varying stylistic character, whether it be dub, house, hip-hop, drum'n'bass—whatever the case. Throughout the hour-long set, voices, samples, drums, percussion, and keyboards swirl within luscious, dub-influenced mixes that grow in hypnotic effect as the sounds accumulate (consider “Aural Hygiene” a representative example of Timescales' inventive sound design). The Deco sound is often heavily downtempo-oriented, a detail never more clear than in the album's three deliciously loose hip-hop vignettes.

A particularly aromatic strain of dub is a recurring touchstone on the album, as evidenced by the twilight soul of “Late Night Fading” and the low-end dubstep of “Cali Trunk Rattle”; not surprisingly, “Trenchtown” makes the connection overt when Rosenzweig sprinkles the reverb-drenched mix with a Rastaman's murmur. Tracks like these do vary in style yet nonetheless draw upon a production sensibility heavily informed by dub (dubstep too), with echo and reverb applied liberally.

November 2013