- Even among Belgium's Vlek crew, for whom subtlety is a keynote, Bepotel take things pretty far. Last year's Startup Label 1, on the trio's self-titled label, was a pensive techno record that hovered on the brink of silence. Its follow-up goes even further, challenging you to listen deep in order to detect the subtle currents moving beneath its inky surfaces.
The record starts off coy and gains confidence as it goes. "OaaS" is three and a half minutes of skeletal dub drums, around which muted toms and chord patterns lap and sway gently. Like shoals of tiny fish, the shapes they make seem random at first but hypnotise over time. On "Found_Weavr" we graduate to a techno beat—albeit a thin, diffident one punctuated by the odd solitary bass tone. Once again, the chords form musty clouds way back in the murk. "Wolf," finally, has a bit of pace, thanks to the limpid hi-hats and claps that periodically float into the foreground. It helps that there's some melody, though it's not much: a muted minor-key arp navigating thoughtfully between tiny bursts of ambience and sleepy feedback trails. In Bepotel's world, this innocuous detail makes all the difference.
TracklistA1 OaaS
B1 Found_Weavr
B2 Wolf