Articles
2009 Artists' Picks
Lymbyc Systym

Albums
Cory Allen
aus
The Bird Ensemble
Canaille
Catlin & Machinefabriek
Greg Davis
Loren Dent
Dirac
Drafted By Minotaurs
Flica
Sarah Goldfarb & JHK
Gown
John Hollenbeck
Viviane Houle
I/DEX
Akira Kosemura
Andrew McKenna Lee
Le Lendemain
LRAD
Lymbyc Systym
Melorman
Muskox
The Mercury Program
Nikasaya
Northerner
nörz
Noveller / Aidan Baker
Redshape
Marina Rosenfeld
Stripmall Architecture
Sturqen
Wes Willenbring
The Tony Wilson Sextet
Julia Wolfe
Peter Wright
Zelienople

Compilations / Mixes
Blackoperator
Glimpse Four:Twenty 03
Kod.eX
Portland Stories

EPs
Molnbär Av John
Tommi Bass & B.B.S.C.
Julian Beau
Colours-Volume 5
Dalot
Echologist
Simon James French
Geiom & Shortstuff
General Elektriks
Geskia
Ernest Gonzales
Gradient
Jacksonville
Joker
Ann Laplantine
Loko
Machinefabriek
Stefano Pilia
Damian Valles

Gradient: Dispersing Sectors
Rednetic Recordings

Rednetic's three-inch series continues with three tracks by Gradient (Saint Petersberg-based Igor Arsenjev). Dub-techno's influence clearly knows no bounds, as the twenty minutes of material by the Russian Federation resident handily shows. It's icy dub-techno of the Basic Channel kind, polished and sleek in a way that's more Berlin bunker than Trenchtown studio. Opener “Membrana” brings an enticingly funky little hiccup to its 4/4 rhythms, and though it slowly gains force via the subtle rise of a build-up the track never loses its calming vibe. The title track opts for a jaunty feel in the way it undergirds vaporous smears with a lightly rolling schaffel-like swing but then grows progressively into a marching strut as the sound field fills in with chordal flourishes. Swathed in a blanket of hiss, “Duplex” plunges even deeper into the dub-techno bath in its pairing of a low-riding pulse and insistent melodic flourishes. Modest in ambition but a satisfying mini-set nevertheless, Dispersing Sectors doesn't advance the genre template but neither does it purport to do so.

January 2010