Saturday, August 15, 2009

3 - Pole (So Long, Ruins! II)









3

Pole
-Scape Records.

SCQ Rating: 48%

One of many elusive electronic pioneers whose work is attached to just about everything, Pole was an artist I’d always planned to seek out. In the summer of 2007 as Sam the Record Man was closing its flagship Toronto store, the timing was as good as I could hope. So I scooped up 3 for a fraction of its original price and enjoyed a few solid weeks of letting its dubbed-out basslines and rickety clicks bounce around my brain. Of course, these were also my first weeks of trying a new anti-anxiety prescription; meaning, I could’ve been listening to a styrofoam cup scraping the concrete and been equally enthused.

While the opening couplet of ‘Silberfisch’ and ‘Taxi’ offer optimism with some multilayered dub exercises, things quickly get tedious and by the time ‘Klattern’ drips like outdoor rainwater, you’ll forget the stereo is on. As part of a trilogy, I’m told 3 is the most accessible and interesting, which makes me all the more certain that Pole’s early work is reserved for the most dedicated left-field dub fans... or anyone completely tripping.

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