Eight is another engrossing extension of dub territory, as each of Monteith’s solo albums opens up a new world. Eighth world, next the ninth.
Montrealer Scott Monteith (for some time now via Berlin) continues to transmit some of the strongest, most flexible messages in dub techno. From rather deracinated beatmaking at the very beginning of his career, he has evolved deeper and deeper layers and layers of rhythm and bass in which to can bury your head. On Eight, he takes us on a Mediterranean sea cruise within earshot of Turkish, Balkan and North African ports of call.
“The Elephant in the Pool” cracks the whip at a troupe of whirling dervishes. On “Lazy Jane” (a third, “steppers” version of the single released as a run-up to this album), the dervishes have fled, and he continues to wield the same whip, but Danuel Tate´s heavily vocodered voice gives him lip anyway. “Alamut” is a Turkish flavored tummy-rubber and tub-thumper with an increasingly martial undertone, music for Janissaries smoking hashish and pumping themselves up before another clash.
“Wolves and Angels” is a similarly propulsive duel with fellow ex-pat Mathew Jonson (founder of the Wagon Repair label, which released Deadbeat’s great Roots and Wire in 2008). A bit of old-school electronica with boopy sequenced patterns against a wall of bamboo dub. After “Punta de Chorros,” a heavily metallic take on more “traditional” Jamaican dub, Robert Henke (Monolake) does some fine tuning to the dancey but pretty perfunctory “May Rotten Roots” while Deadbeat conjures up a whole, international crew on the dancey but far from ordinary “Yard.” “Horns of Jericho” features erstwhile Pete Namlook and Atom Heart colleague Dandy Jack and despite its name, is a cheery closer with a kind of Bo Diddley-rhythm.
Eight is another engrossing extension of dub territory, as each of Monteith’s solo albums opens up a new world. Eighth world, next the ninth.
Eight is available on BLKRTZ. [Release page]
