Deepchord Presents Echospace

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5...according to our Brett on Thu 24 Jun, 2010.

I feel like I'm in a decent position to be talking you through the latest Deepchord effort, having much enjoyed The Coldest Season (a few tracks of which transcended their Basic Channel-ite beginnings and forged something uniquely their own) I've been hammering this the past few weekends while I've been beavering away in our stockroom and from being initially underwhelmed I've now grown to be jolly fond of it. Things have warmed up quite considerably since the icy extreme of that previous album and the overall atmosphere is quite different - as the cityscape on the cover suggests, it has far more of a human touch. The album begins and ends with extended periods of crackling, beatless ambience while the middle section houses the pounding, surprisingly danceable 4/4 money shots (apparently honed in the live arena) - particularly the stunning 'BCN Dub', with its rapidly decaying brass riff fading in and out of the focus of an incessant house thud, which I demand be pressed up on 12" RIGHT NOW. In fact, speaking of 'decay', it seems to be at least one of the key themes of the album; the whole thing sounds completely washed out, as though layers are stripping away with each listen. I guess in that sense there's almost something of a Leyland Kirby feel to it, just approached from a very different angle. The limited bonus disc of field recordings that were utilized on the album sounds as though it could well develop that notion but sadly we ain't got one of those to listen to. So yeah, despite the fact we should be so far past the point where we need any more dub techno it's ridiculous, I can't help but give this two giant thumbs up.

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* 'Deepchord Presents Echospace' is the collaborative project of Rod Modell and Steve Hitchell, two veteran producers based in Chicago and Detroit, now returning for a second full album for the Modern Love label.
* In the years that have passed both artists have been busy with numerous projects, developing their own Echospace imprint and recording under a number of different guises. Modell in particular has developed his longstanding fascination with location recordings, and some made in Tokyo over the last couple of years provided the source material for what would eventually become this new album. *Indeed, a bonus CD that comes with the first pressing of the CD features 80 minutes of these original field recordings. Although the vapor trails of dub still colour the essence of much of this new material, 'Liumin' is an altogether more 'destroyed' experience than its predecessor, opening with the washed-out, beatless sequence of 'In Echospace', a track that somehow manages to harness the disorientating experience of being a stranger in a strange land, with only the flickering glow of neon lights for company. .

* The album unfurls with stretches of immersive techno and low-end treatments compressed with a growling, unstable focus that's in turn oppressive and soothing, re-creating the uniquely ambiguous euphoria/narcosis that comes with extended sleep deprivation. It's an effect that's perhaps encapsulated best on 'BCN Dub', a heaving warehouse thump that's entwined with shortwave radio transmissions bringing to life a disembodied horn-section from deep in the ether.
There may well be some connection to dub lurking deep in the foggy mists of these recordings - but 'Liumin' inhabits far more opaque and unsettling terrain to anything you may have heard from both this project, or any of its many imitators.