~scape
Stefan Betke's excellent ~scape label has been quickly building a catalog around an almost singular fascination with filtered sounds. Branching off from Pole's warped vision of dub for dust particles, the label's releases have been nothing if not consistent in their approach to not-quite-danceable but still beat-oriented music. Staedtizism 3 offers what is perhaps the label's first real peek from behind the low pass curtain. Drawing on the rhythms and structures of hip hop rather than the jazz, dub, and micro-house influence of previous ~scape releases, this collection manages to incorporate the familiar ~scape vocabulary of muted melodic fragments and hissing beats into a new contextural framework. Cappablack even offers the comp some vocal cuts and genuine glitch-hop beat twisting that jumps off the disc like a Funstorung remix cued up in an otherwise laid-back downtempo mix. Likewise, Kit Clayton turns the filters and echo effects off and renders a hard-wired, disjointed jam with simple, soft chords that are swallowed by gurgling vocal splatter. John Tejada steps outside the ~scape box with scratching and fractured voices spilling out over an otherwise straightforward beat. Elsewhere, the collection covers much of the same beat-up, angular approach to digi-sliced hip hop featured on Dub Records 2001 compilation, Men With Boxes and other similar forays into the genre. While more of these tracks are fun for car rides, folks who have already amassed a collection of glitchy hip hop instrumentals from other labels may find Staedtizism 3 a bit redundant. Nevertheless, ~scape appear to be breaking out of their own, strictly defined box, if just for a moment, to offer the world a new kind of beat box for a new melinnium.
Stefan Betke's excellent ~scape label has been quickly building a catalog around an almost singular fascination with filtered sounds. Branching off from Pole's warped vision of dub for dust particles, the label's releases have been nothing if not consistent in their approach to not-quite-danceable but still beat-oriented music. Staedtizism 3 offers what is perhaps the label's first real peek from behind the low pass curtain. Drawing on the rhythms and structures of hip hop rather than the jazz, dub, and micro-house influence of previous ~scape releases, this collection manages to incorporate the familiar ~scape vocabulary of muted melodic fragments and hissing beats into a new contextural framework. Cappablack even offers the comp some vocal cuts and genuine glitch-hop beat twisting that jumps off the disc like a Funstorung remix cued up in an otherwise laid-back downtempo mix. Likewise, Kit Clayton turns the filters and echo effects off and renders a hard-wired, disjointed jam with simple, soft chords that are swallowed by gurgling vocal splatter. John Tejada steps outside the ~scape box with scratching and fractured voices spilling out over an otherwise straightforward beat. Elsewhere, the collection covers much of the same beat-up, angular approach to digi-sliced hip hop featured on Dub Records 2001 compilation, Men With Boxes and other similar forays into the genre. While more of these tracks are fun for car rides, folks who have already amassed a collection of glitchy hip hop instrumentals from other labels may find Staedtizism 3 a bit redundant. Nevertheless, ~scape appear to be breaking out of their own, strictly defined box, if just for a moment, to offer the world a new kind of beat box for a new melinnium.samples:
- Jan Jelinek - Silver Circle
- Kit Clayton - Etymon No
- John Tejada - Cyberspace Visual
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