- Is dub techno warm or cold? Is it organic or metallic? The truth is we don’t seem to be able to make up our minds—even about the same piece of music. We flip between one descriptor and the other like the genre was a Necker cube optical illusion. The title of Seidemann’s latest longplayer, Ice and Snow, is a likewise contradictory: these are warm-sounding tracks. But somehow it’s also an appropriate title as it's also an album of contradictions and oppositions.
Sebastian Seidemann only releases sporadically. As well as the odd Sonar Kollektiv missive via the sub-label Aspekte Schallplatten, he’s responsible for Static Random, a deep and dark 12” on the Danish dub techno imprint Echocord. Hard without being rough, the EP packs a lot into a loosely dub-tech framework, with angular breakbeats churning up a dubby undercurrent in a mix of IDM and old school heroin house. The dark, sharply defined landscapes of Ice and Snow are along the same lines, but Siedmann adds a multitude of elements and languages that sit together uneasily.
Seidemann declares his dub intentions upfront on the title track, splicing snippets from an old Lee Scratch Perry BBC interview over languid beats. Track two, ‘Catalpa’, is classic dub techno. Vocal samples elsewhere add texture: the plaintive cries on ‘Amor Y Ceguera’ recall Burial, while on ‘Motter Och Dotter’ the whispered dialogue from the Swedish film Autumn Sonata offers shades of AGF/Delay.
‘Humaine Et Bête’s soaring, trancey melody jars with the spacey reverb swirling underneath in what is otherwise one of the more dance friendly cuts. The floor oriented stuff, ‘Stimulancia’, the quirky ‘Akapantus’, is heavy with IDM beats and evokes more Necker cube perception flips and inversions. Is it Dub techno? IDM? DnB? ‘Musique Et Réduction’, with its deep loops whip-cracking in darkness, is very ‘of the moment’, and so is ‘Radionik’, but that’s no reason to write them off—they’re romping mutations: warm, cold and IDMish.
The pace of the album is uneven, lending itself to selective listening, and while there’s nothing new overall, the texture and nuance of the collaged elements make it worth a rinse for the standouts.
Tracklist01 Ice And Snow
02 Catalpa
03 Amor Y Ceguera
04 Humaine Et Bête
05 Moder Och Dotter
06 Stimulancia
07 Musique Et Réduction
08 Akapantus
09 Radionik
10 Water And Rain