News / / 13.03.13

FUNCTION

INCUBATION (Ostgut Ton)

14/20

After roughly 15 years on the scene, NY techno producer and one half of Sandwell District Dave Sumner finally delivers this debut album via Berghain’s imprint Ostgut Ton.

The album begins with Voiceprint, a brutish and menacing titan in more of an industrial class – bearing similarities to XTG’s recent Desertshore – than straight up techno. Whatever its genre, this opening draws the listener in inexorably. This sentiment is challenged immediately, however, with Against the Wall. Despite perfecting a techno bark in a feat of technical mastery, it comes off as a somewhat immobile; a paradox in a genre is that always moving.

All anxiety, however, is cast aside by Counterpoint, a cinematic masterpiece whose optimistic passages suggest not only the sci-fi theme the release notes are desperately trying to convey, but a spellbinding appeal that is found only in excellent songwriting.

If the drumless fresco painted by Counterpoint is the atmospheric high of the album, then Incubation and Psychic Warfare barbarously slug it out for the top dance track. Incubation builds and builds until it swallows you whole, and demands and deserves dancefloor playtime, whilst the heady Psychic Warfare reinterprets the classic 303 acid sound, taking it to new emotional levels.

Inter and Voiceprint (Reprise) both reflect reinterpretations of Sumner’s work. Whilst Voiceprint is the album’s opener, Inter surfaced back in 2011 on the Sandwell District label. This time, the latter is revised with an extended intro and emphasis on the vocal. Being slower than the original, it turns a reflective club piece into a more loosened part of the album set. With Voiceprint (Reprise) being reinterpreted as a kick heavy dance floor banger, both pieces have successfully resurfaced anew.

Overall, the album strikes a good balance between tracks that are listenable and danceable, but at times this collapses into something that fits neither the former nor latterIt was an unfortunate and unintended consequence of Sandwell District’s final album that it became another casualty to the Discogs sellers’ community, but we can only hope that this album, despite having the quality and collectability that will draw fans and newcomers alike, will be remembered for its content, not its price tag.

 

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Words: Gareth Thomas

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