DEADBEAT

These are exciting times we live in. No, no, please keep reading. I'm not going to talk about the US elections. I couldn't give a toss, really. I'm referring to the astounding quality and fair quantity of albums being released that are patiently stacking themselves into my listen-to list this year.

Earlier in the year Sascha Funke, Loco Dice, Minilogue and The Mole all released superb albums. In the latter parts of 2008 we've had substantial additions from Shed, Stefan Goldmann, Headhunter and the topic of today's discussion, Deadbeat, with Roots and Wire.

Raised amidst the fraying edges of the Montreal glitch techno scene Scott Montieth has released a steady body of work with an increasing eye towards the stark, mechanical dub emanating from Berlin. Indeed Monolake has long been a friend and collaborator and throughout Deadbeat's staggering six album history (quite a feat in the techno realm), has been an increasingly apparent influence.

Now residing in Berlin, his latest album adopts further shades of the city's techno dub clout balanced out with his own proliferating forays into the techno side-branch of dubstep.

Pursuantly it seems only fitting that Paul St. Hilaire acts as compere, welcoming and farewelling us with his goodly Rasta wisdom that he has provided for a myriad of releases over the years.

The opener Rise Again feels like an old steam train pulling out of the station gathering momentum for the journey, the conductor's whistle replaced with a dubman's harmonica, the clacking of the tracks subjugated by subterranean bass. Even in this first track there are strains of dubstep peeking through, which surface next up on the album's namesake. A sturdy 140bpm, Roots and Wire adopts syncopated beats over the rolling bass onslaught and fires off layer upon layer of chords into the echo chamber.

Grounation (Berghain Drum Jack) is a slight return to the impeccable Eastward on to Mecca twelve Deadbeat released at the start of the year, and a nod to the kinetic locomotive energy of the Berlin club. For pure bred lovers of the Maurizio and Basic Channel camps, Xberg Ghosts coughs up the goods, a sprawling techno dub epic slowly unfolds, enveloping all within its cavernous warmth and deliberate hissing valves. Maurizio may be in semi retirement but with the raft of producers out there deeply influenced by and continuing on in the tradition it's like they never stopped.

Night Stepping returns to the fractured funk of dubstep and for my money is the pick of the album. Ascending chords and synth melodies pair exquisitely with the abbreviated drums and fathomless bottom end. All too soon the strains of Paul St. Hilaire chime the endings of Roots and Wire, the rootsy Dominican soul man chanting us out with Babylon Correction.

Mikkel Metal's Peaks & Troughs new long player also hosts St. Hilaire and embraces some selfsame elements of dub and techno, though it is Headhunter's astounding debut album Nomad that Roots and Wire has most in common with, so much so that the two seem to occupy opposite sides of the same coin. Where Deadbeat hits us up with a deep dubby techno feast littered with morsels of dubstep, Headhunter serves up deep burrowing dubstep cut with strains of techno. These two albums coil around each other with slick serpentine grace, together defining the cross over worlds of techno and dubstep and I'm sure introducing fans of each genre to the other.

After picking up a copy of Roots and Wire trawl through Deadbeat's back catalogue and treat yourself to more from this vanguard producer.

Deadbeat – Roots and Wire

*****

Three worlds collide and the super planet created is Dubtechnostep.

Silverbeat's Top Five

Deadbeat – Roots and Wire

Headhunter – Nomad

Simon Flower – Still Here, Still There

Santiago Salazar & Silent Servant – Historia y Violencia 1

Mister X – Hazy Bliss

Silverbeat's Classic Listening

New Order – Power, Corruption & Lies