Bit-Tuner: Signals EP

May 28 2012

After his appreciated EP “Drome”, issued by Trepok with the blessing of the Nome King, one the most frightening antagonist of Oz villains imagined by L.Frank Baum in his notorious novel, evoked by its cover artwork and its rocky dubstep, a collaboration with Manuel Oberholzer aka Feldermelder and a good remix of “You Say I” by countrymen Filewile on Mouthwatering, Swiss producer Marcel Gschwend hits again dubstep grounds with another wicked release, whose dry and vigorous blows partially recall the ones heard in many tracks of “Low-Speed Detonation”. On side A, a straight thud precedes overpitched trumpet tones and catching dub tailspins in the initial “Gone”, just a warm-up before the mindblowing wobble of “Cranberry Temper” whose acidity has been tempered by a 3-tone melody which recalled to my mind a relatively old ambient-dub tune by Adam Douglas, Deeper Than Space’s “Spaceship Melody”, and the weird atmosphere of “Hymn”, where it seems Marcel sometimes give a sauce of corrosive acids a mix. An hefty step marks the beginning of B side as well, even if Marcel place some funny samples which recalled a bizarre sample Naohiro Fujikawa aka Bisk used on “Moonstruck Parade” before melting rhythmical pattern with snappy viscous sounds. In spite of the alchemical camouflage, “Veteran” (enjoy the way Marcel fuses some burbling sounds with some hymnal pads) and above all the final uplifter “Up-Stairs” (it’s really funny the 8-bit-like rollover) look like cultivars of “traditional” electronic dub more than dubstep-oriented.