Steingarten
German producer Stefan Betke, who has been recording as Pole since the ‘90s, is a master of armchair-and-headphones techno. His music is as lovely and cold as the undulating glass and steel structures contemporary architects love to design. But he also draws from the deep throb of Jamaican dub, and more recently, from American hip-hop, styles that bring swing and sway to his chilly tracks. Steingarten is Pole’s first full-length since 2004\'s *Pole*, an album that featured the verbal flow of MC Fat Jon. The more recent album is all instrumental, and the opener, “Warum,” immediately informs the listener that Betke has not forgotten to bring the abstract funk. The cut sports a killer riff with a syncopated hole in its noisy middle interjections that poke at the groove, and a plethora of sonic tidbits. “Acterbahn”’s ticklish hook and web of percussive effects could rock dance clubs populated by sleek and sexy androids. When was the last time you heard a harmonica on an electronica album as you do on “Pferd,” the closer? The track’s sweet end-of the-movie melancholy nicely wraps things up.
„Writing about music is like dancing about architecture – it’s a really stupid thing to want to do.“ This saying - usually attributed to Elvis Costello or Laurie Anderson – underestimates the urge many people have to read about music, even if it’s difficult to capture music in words. And this phrase was also coined by somebody totally unfamiliar with Pole’s music. Because when you listen to Pole, you always have the feeling that this is music that could be architecture, an elegantly spare form that reaches out into space. And it would thus be architecture you could dance to. After minimalist experiments with elements of hip-hop and dub, Stefan Betke’s latest album has hardly any concrete references. What has remained, though, is the minimalism so characteristic of Pole. Built around little loops, his arrangements dispose with any kind of ornamentation. A stark contrast with the album’s title and cover – which shows a picture of the famously ornate, gingerbread-style castle Schloss Neuschwanstein. But despite some funky grooves, this is no dancefloor record. And despite its simplicity, the music never comes across as meagre or repellently cool. This might be due to the fact that Pole has found a perfect middle point between avantgarde and pop. Pop in the sense of functional music, which wants to please and use familiar structures. And avantgarde, which, since early modernity has been characterised by a total lack of solicitousness, not seeking to be anything but an autonomous piece of art. The beats are groovy, but never overtly dance-oriented. Melodies are used as harmonic dashes of colour, but remain fragmentary rather than sing-song-y. Some cracking noises pop up, but not as a dissonant element - they just seem a logical part of the sound structure. The term “sound design” would, in this context, not be derogatory but a fitting term for the clearly structured textures which form the basis of Pole’s music. This music is not about mere comfort, and it’s certainly not made as the ideal, unobtrusive soundtrack for modern glass-and-concrete hotel bars. But it’s certainly about music that structures space and creates order. Formally, things dark, nebulous and irrational are alien to Pole. So it’s all the more amazing how well it nurtures daydreams - and practically invites listeners to drift off on flights of fancy. There is indeed one thing that Pole’s music shares with the visions of King Ludwig, who, in building Schloss Neuschwanstein, wanted to create a world for himself shielded from reality: Pole’s warm bass and powerful but elastic production style conveys a feeling of cosiness; it doesn’t take on the outside world, doesn’t mirror it or comment on it, but creates a world all its own. ˜scape 2007
Berlin studio mastermind and ~scape label proprietor Stefan Betke's latest in gurgling, crackling dub reductionism brims with ideas and vitality.
With his 2003 self-titled Pole album, Stefan Betke abandoned the minimalist glitch-dub of his previous three albums (and numerous singles and EPs) and embraced full-on overt beat construction, even going so far as to incorporate an MC/vocalist on some tracks in the form of positive rapper Fat Jon, at the risk of alienating his existing avant-inclined audience.
Although he may not get as much attention as he perhaps should -- and lets be frank, minimal electronic music is a dicey sell under the best of musical...