Steingarten Remixes - Pole

The 20: November 2007

Click to view a release from this issue of The 20.

Featured Review #16

Steingarten Remixes

Pole [Scape]

#16 in this month's The 20

Section: Music Recommendations Topics: The 20
Written by: lizwarner

If an artist is going to focus on layered, dubbed out sounds, having a home base of Berlin is nothing short of ideal.

The godfathers of the sound within modern-day electronic music, Basic Channel/Rhythm&Sound, have done quite a job in the dub revival, commonly morphed today into a something known as grime.

It’s fitting, then, that someone who’s been key in popularizing their mastering sound quality via Basic Channel’s Dubplates & Mastering studio, Stefan Betke, would eventually find his way into his own productions.

Today, his Pole project is revered by many as an artist that’s continuing the Basic Channel tradition.

His latest album, ‘Steingarten’, follows the tradition, but gets a rework by several artists connected with dub and/or Berlin scene with ‘Steingarten Remixes’.

Relative newcomer but quick impressionist Peverelist comes in with a deep but cleaner rendition of ‘Winkelstreben’, while Shackleton goes more on the deep and dark side with a take of ‘Achterbahn’.

The Mole’s rendition of ‘Pferd’ is nearly playful, and Deadbeat’s take ‘Sylvenstein’ is positively tropical with its additional rhythm layering.

Frivilous adds some dancefloor sass to a new rendition of ‘Achterbahn’ — while Dimbiman (AKA Zip of Perlon fame) minimizes the layers and takes the cut back to its Jamaican roots a bit with his version, based in percussion.

Typically connected with house, Mike Huckaby gets more Pole than Pole on his version of ‘Dusseldorf’.

‘Steingarten’ is a document of an artist continually exploring sounds and layers in an attempt to find the bare essence of the music.

In the case of ‘Steingarten Remixes’, Pole gets a lot of insight from his friends, proving, once again, that some of the best ideas come though dialogue.