Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Martin Schulte – Depth of Soul

Having spent a few years rising through the ranks on netlabels like Red and Op3n, Russia’s Marat Shibaev has found a new hard disc home on Tokyo’s fledgling Lantern Records. While there are echoes of dub and Kompakt-influenced minimalism (his pseudonym hints at the gutte vibrations), there is a compacted surface to these tracks that render them dancefloor-friendly. What distinguishes them from your average upper-middle tempo cuts are the detailed undercurrents built into pieces like “Big City Street” and “Supper.” The latter’s clattering flatware and mealtime chatter is more prominent, while the former features more subliminal snippets of voice that encourage slightly paranoid sidelong glances. Even the less ambience infected tracks are gibbous with little working parts. Even as the topmost 4/4 is prodding the plexus there are blurry washes that graze the surface, like moving water under ice. Having just cracked the big 2-0 Shibaev has many promising nights ahead of him.

Lantern Records

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