It’s really great to see and hear Touched Music giving some of these artists another new home, and whilst it’s part of a ten year anniversary and bringing back feelings and artists I had love for more 20 years ago when I was first discovering them. I’m waiting with bated breath what other gems come out as part of this series.
Explorations across modular technology
Dub Tractor make a welcome return with their latest full length release Wait coming to us on Touched Music. Dub Tractor is the solo project from Anders Remmer from Denmark. Anders works with a number of other artists in groups and projects under a variety of names including System, How Do I, Jesper & Anders and of course People Press Play. Dub Tractor releases go back as far as 1994, and span a number of influential labels, Flex Records and the now sleeping giant City Centre Office to name a couple. Wai‘ is the follow up long player to Hello Ambient Wash from 2017.
Wait shows Dub Tractor take their existing sound and distill it down to something even more pure and succinct, following on from a hearty back catalogue across Flex, and the superb City Centre Office, and Music For Dreams labels. This new albums shows a growing maturity, and the ability to provide the space for sounds to breathe, the sometimes less is more approach. An album that demands repeated listening, and molds itself to exist in your heart and mind in its own special place. The album pays respect to the wonderful City Centre Offices label which has helped shape and pioneer new music for me in the early 00’s bringing lots of interesting electronic and related music to fans over the last 20+ years.
It’s really great to see and hear Touched Music giving some of these artists another new home, and whilst it’s part of a ten-year anniversary and bringing back feelings (and artists) I had love for more 20 years ago when I was first discovering them. I’m waiting with bated breath what other gems come out as part of this series.
Mellow, tone-driven compositions with super-rich bass ::
Wait bellows out mellow, tone-driven compositions with super-rich bass, striking out beyond what I’d call mere ambient into more active musical territory. There’s an absence of percussion that one might expect on some tracks, but this extra space allows the clanking, fizzing and clanging, create their own rhythms and leaves them all the more space to breathe. Warm and analog-sounding with what feels like explorations across modular technology is the flavor I’m getting here.
Track titles like “D04,” “D05,” or “C03” suggest variations on themes collected into subsets of the overall release. Tracks being like siblings or cousins to each other, at times sharing tones or arrangements, but each with their own unique personality. This is how I perceive this body of work.
The title track has a more pipe organ sound and makes one feel humbled by its simplicity, but equally enthralled by its fantasy-like mystique. Some lovely, relatively lo-fi percussion, joins the wispy organs, to elevate this track over some of its cousins here. A truly beautiful, almost fairytale composition. “F72” also stands somewhat apart, continuing the percussive arrangement theme. Warm analogue synth lines weave around the simple percussions with nice aplomb.
For fans of Touched Music, City Centre Offices, and good electronic music, this is a very worthy kick-off for the Touch Music 10 years anniversary series.
Wait is available on Touched Music. [Bandcamp]
