- As RA's Max Bacharach recently pointed out, Arne Weinberg is a bit of a classicist and there's not a damn thing wrong with that. Nocturne, his first widely available full-length under his Onmutu Mechanicks moniker, sees him take on dub techno and operates under the same assumption. The genre is an especially tough one, as Basic Channel's enormous influence towers over anyone who favors a Roland Space Echo can attest. But Weinberg has been crafting tracks for years, and it's easy to hear that on Nocturne.
"Catatonic," for instance, turns things out with a breakbeat, slicing neatly through the murky clouds of ambience. It pricks your ears immediately as familiar but not overly so. The same goes for "Across the Styx," which jettisons the beat altogether in favor of exploring how a simple pulse can carry eleven minutes of twirling synths. And even if "Your Touch Is Electric" is the weakest track here, you have to at least appreciate the monologue and the mild stutters of the beat. Those that sometimes feel like all dub techno sounds the same will have a tough time leveling that complaint here.
They may, however, if they only listen to those aforementioned bits of classicism. Even if they're among the best things here. "On Silent Wings," "Constant X" and "Lupos Moon" don't vary a ton from what might be expected, but they're produced immaculately. Weinberg has been at this long enough to know how to pull this sort of thing off. The same goes for Echocord label boss Kenneth Christiansen, who is among the only DJs in the world that can play dub techno for an entire night and make it sound interesting. That they worked together on this release should tell you something. If the music doesn't already speak for itself.
If you hadn't already guessed, Nocturne is likely one for those who already like dub techno. But as you can hear throughout the disc, there are hints of spaces for those not already attuned to its unique frequencies to be let in. Those looking to buy one dub techno full-length this year would be well-advised to grab Deepchord's latest. If you're looking for a second, this may well be it.
Tracklist 01. Catatonic
02. Aspiring To Aspire
03. Lupos Moon
04. Neutrino
05. Constant X
06. When You Return
07. Across The Styx
08. Your Touch Is So Electric
09. On Silent Wings