~scape

scape15

		deadbeat
wild life documentaries Over the last two years Berlin-based label ~scape, initially a platform for selected dub productions and electronic music influenced by this genre, has slowly broadened its musical spectrum cautiously but systematically, spreading its output to unique interpretations of jazz and hiphop. Besides this diversification, as exemplified by the label's staedtizism compilation range, some of the label's focus has now been redirected back to the roots, i.e. electronic dub and its derivatives. The upcoming DEADBEAT album "Wild Life Documentaries" feels at home in this context as does the latest SYSTEM release (late August 2002). Montreal, Canada: once a rather inconspicuous blot on the musical map, recently this city has turned into a creative hub for electronic music. Its incredibly lively scene not only churns out a cornucopia of groundbreaking productions, but is hailed by both local and visiting artists for its openness, its electrifying and inspiring energy. Scott Monteith, aka DEADBEAT, has been part of this scene's inner circle since the beginning. His first records were put out by Hautec and Revolver from 1998. With the scene's internationally known protagonists (e.g. Akufen or Jeff Milligan, alias DJ Algorithm) he has longstanding artistic and friendly relations, the same applies to the Mutek festival which played a significant part in the awakening of Montreal. Spending his daytime hours researching and developing new sound synthesis techniques and tools for the music software foundry Applied Acoustics, at night Scott Monteith uses these fertile tools to work on his own musical textures. Last year's highly praised debut album - released by Intr_version Records, Montreal - had been an "investigation of dub on the cellular level" and proved DEADBEAT's masterful grip on the most varied techniques. The new album "Wild Life Documentaries" delves deep into this heritage: the entire idiomatic richesse, the aural trade marks, the delays, the white noise, the tape echo, all the compressions and manipulations the history of dub hasproduced have found their place in his work, were used, re-interpreted, re-invented and transferred into the here and now. Technical finesse is never pushed to the forefront, though, because DEADBEAT relies much more on the traditional roots elements of classic dub, their timeless soul and very own nostalgia. On "Wild Life Documentaries" sound experimentation joins the courage for direct, emotional statements, in Monteith's words: "the display of discrete emotional states." In this he has not only rediscovered narrative, song-based structure-affiliated composition methods for individual tracks, but also blends everything into a dub epic, a suite of nevertheless autonomous tracks, a listening journey stretching from the melancholically smoky opener "Open My Eyes That I May See" via more forceful tracks (like "Dub For Akufen" and "To Berlin With Love") to the relaxed, hopeful "Kezia". Stations on this journey are the rather straight "Let It Rain", in which DEADBEAT skilfully allows the Canadian rain sampled on his doorstep to interact with synthetic cymbals. In "Cause For Hope" Tassmann software-modelled strings delve into explorations whose complexity only becomes clear at the closest listening, countered by stopped dancehall beats. "To Berlin With Love" meanwhile is a dramatic "deep on the dancefloor"-style homage to the city which has spawned so many milestones of the electronic adaptation of dub. Complex, effusive, straight-forward but packed with subtle humour, the track is reminiscent of another key figure of the Montreal scene, the inspiration behind the subsequent "Dub For Akufen". Originally devised as a remix for a mutually planned, but never realised project by the two friends, this is possibly the track most likely to find its way onto the dancefloor. Nevertheless, the driving flow of "Wild Life Documentaries" unfolds itself to the careful listener as much as to the casual consumer, who, in DEADBEAT's words, might use it as "wallpaper of sound". Because with all its attitude and dramatic claim the album is carried by a relaxed, organic warmth, the soul inherent in all true dub music. Sascha Wolters