Though they aren't necessarily its biggest name, Dadub play a crucial role in Stroboscopic Artefacts. The Italian duo master all of the label's releases in their impressive studio, contributing analogue warmth and careful clarity to its productions. Their earlier work swamped rhythms in sheets of implacable sound, giving them a lot in common with their label-mates. On their debut album, however, they home in on an abstract vision of techno that's more blanketing than it is bumping.
You Are Eternity is like a long and endless tunnel: for all its twists and turns, you're always in the same sensory deprivation chamber. The duo fill their atmospheres with imaginary ecosystems, full of microscopic sounds that seem to spawn and move all by themselves. Every little noise feels discrete and important, a skill I'd chalk up to their experience as mastering engineers—they're experts in making things sound right.
The duo place all sorts of styles into their petri dish over the course of the record, from moody techno to serene ambient and, of course, dub. The thrills of opener "Vibration" and the dramatic rimshots on the incredible "Path" provide a certain gravitas that elevates their stuff to theatrical levels. Amidst all the heaving dub rhythms and the fantastically liquid techno—particularly "Circle," their collaboration with Edit Select—are other experiments in texture and sound design. One gets the sense that these two just love manipulating sound itself. "Transfer," which features King Cannibal, is the album's hardest moment, but it's about textural brutality rather than physical might.
Running off that track's toxic fumes, the primordial "Arrival" takes the album into its bloodiest waters. Then, as if collapsing in on itself, You Are Eternity settles into its gorgeous home stretch of melody and soothing ambience. An almost 30-minute interval of drone after so much pounding techno may sound like a buzzkill, but Dadub inhabit the style more naturally than most techno producers. Sometimes it's just about the way you put things together, and if there's anything that Daniele Antezza and Giovanni Conti know, it's how to arrange sound.
