- DeepChord were already refiners when they started, building on the dub techno blueprint set out in Berlin. There's nothing wrong with refinement, of course, and after Mike Schommer left the duo in 2002 Rod Modell went on to make some of the most beloved dub techno of the '00s. There's a point, though, beyond which a formula can't get any more elegant, its execution more slick. During the 15 years in which Schommer didn't release a record, dub techno lodged so firmly in the dance music vernacular that it's now inscribed in technology. With an Ableton soft synth preset and the Ping Pong Delay plug-in you can whip up a passable dappled dub chord in five minutes flat. On parts of Schommer's comeback record it sounds like he's done just that.
Which isn't to say that Anamnesis sounds like the work of a beginner. It's faultless, in the way that uninspired music with technology on its side and years of genre tradition to draw on can be. Each track has the requisite creamy chords, the crisp drums and pillow-smooth low-end, arranged in comforting patterns and gleaming like moulded plastic. "Into The Night" is the downtempo number. With its head-nod halftime it's the offspring of Basic Channel's "No Partial," in the way that pretenders to a throne might claim distant descent from some mythical king. The centrepiece is a cheesy minor-key melody, played on a synth horn crinkled with digital distortion. "Invitation To Love," the straighter techno number, is also marred by a misjudged melody, a prim four-note thing drenched in tasteful delay. "Remember When" frames similar materials with a stiff broken beat rhythm. Like the others, it's not that bad—if you can ignore the empty look in its eyes.
TracklistA1 Invitation To Love
B1 Remember When
B2 Into The Night