Pole
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In the 10 years (yes 10 years…) since Pole, aka Stefan Betke released the first part of his groundbreaking trilogy of albums, a lot has changed in the world of electronic music. The most obvious being the recent domination of minimal sounds and aesthetics. However, as is often the case you need to look to the past, before you can understand the present and this re-release is anything but a cash in. For a start although Pole’s music is minimal in form it owes nothing to minimal techno, and much more to Lee Scratch Perry. Stefan’s love of dub & reggae is well documented, and this is effectively the music he makes – urban dub. Dub sounds and rhythms (mostly) created with a layer of electronic grime from that famous broken filter. With collaborations with Shakleton in the pipeline, and his recent amazing Resident Advisor podcast, the time it would seem has come for Pole to reach a new audience. Listening back to these albums now, it is amazing how fresh they sound. It’s like he invented dub step, and although he wasn’t the first to combine minimalism with heavy bass, he was the first to do it so cohesively. Highly recommended.