Steingarten Remixes

We Say...

Review by Philip Sherburne

Pole's 2007 album Steingarten saw the Berlin dub-techno icon overhauling his sound after 2003's hip-hop-leaning effort Pole. Rather than return to the familiar andante murk of his first four albums, though, Pole (aka Stefan Betke) succeeded in forging a unique sound from dub rhythms, Krautrock guitars and the precision sonics of contemporary minimal techno.

Accordingly, Steingarten Remixes is one of the most diverse releases on Betke's own ~scape label, taking in dubstep (Shackleton, Peverelist), dancehall (Ghislain Poirier, Deadbeat) and deep house (Melchior Productions, Frivolous). Whether through a quirk of the source material or simply a shared idea of what a ~scape record should sound like, however, all 10 remixes fit together startlingly well for a project of its kind; there's no need to make custom playlists to skip a drum 'n' bass dud or an electro sore thumb.

The one thing that all the remixers seem to have learned from Steingarten is how to wring unexpected tone color from the most greyscale surroundings, as though tapping dry granite to produce drops of mossy green and yellow. The only exception might be "Düsseldorf (Mike Huckaby's Synth Remix Detroit)," which leans heavily on an analog crackle reminiscent of Betke's own early work. "Acherbahn (Dimbiman Remix)," by the Perlon label owner also known as Zip, is a particular highlight for the way it truncates Betke's scraggly guitars and synthetic whirrs into a lithe, rippling approximation of funk with all the controlled chaos of a Raymond Pettibon drawing. Another Perlon artist, Thomas Melchior, uses just a few stitches to loop the mournful "Pferd" into a long, flowing robe that spins like a slo-mo dervish. Dub enthusiasts will doubtless take to the shifting tectonics of Shackleton's "Achterbahn" remix, all heft and friction. With nary a dud in the set, Steingarten Remixes lends itself to a more pleasurable kind of playlist. Just set the whole thing on shuffle and be surprised by the way sounds make their passageway through the maze, changing colors with every turn.