Customer Reviews

3

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Stefan Betke made quite a stir when his first Pole album (blue cover, titled "CD1") hit the streets. Suddenly every publication from The Wire to Spin was raving about his fresh approach to abstract electronic music. When examining all three of Pole's releases, there is an obvious progression from the first to the newest. Regardless of whether it is a result of being absorbed in his malfunctioning technology the first goround, or whether it was a reservation to allow his influences to run free, we're all glad that Betke began to incorporate the dub influence more obviously that he hinted at so quietly on the debut. 3 finds these influences cropping up even more often than on its predecessor. As an album, it offers little new other than this more immediate dub slant, as it continues the tradition of crackly, beatless experiments in audio. However, fans will not be disappointed, and for newcomers this is as good a place as any to begin.

Hats off to Stefan Betke for Pole 3, the first CD I've heard in years that I had to listen to for days on end after I bought it. What I really like about this music is its warmth. It feels like sitting inside one's living room on a rainy Sunday morning with a fire in the fireplace and a book you can't put down.

This music is calming and intriguing at the same time. The use of scratches and pops is so on the mark. The overall tonality and the interesting bass lines contribute to the muted beauty of the work while the higher end sounds eliminate any chance of it becoming monotonous.

Pole is sometimes lumped in with "glitch" IDM, but with the 3 release at least, that's a mistake. It's better to think of Pole as minimalist dub inspired by glitch - almost a laid-back version of Monolake. At its best Pole is excellent chill music, catchy and even somewhat danceable. Certainly not what I was expecting when I first bought the album (Pole being a German musician, Stefan Betke).

In its less interesting moments though it can sound dull and repetitive, which is why I've given this album a four-star rating. Regardless I think the positives outweigh the negatives here, as long as you're open-minded about electronic music and willing to enjoy the background crackling and warbling - or put up with it, perhaps. Listen to samples and decide for yourself.

A beautiful weightless list of sounds where the hipnosys created by crackles and static interferences noises conquer the listeners. Not easy listening, but a peaceful experience similar to the sense of lost we have when our favourite songs finish and the sound is low, delicate and soft. A dreamy rythm in progression where human voices are tourists in world of echoes (TAXI) which wraps your mind like a massage. At the end I play POLE3 again.

Stefan Betke's latest dubbed-out offering of re-organised clicks and pops succeeds by challenging our notions of what constitutes "legitimate" musical source. The overall sound picture is even less tonal than conventional dub and the album makes up for this by means of its novel textures, which give rise to innovative interplay between rhythmic elements. However, the same cannot be said for the melodic and harmonic ends of the scale, and sitting through an entire album's worth of such a limited sonic perspective can be quite trying.

Pole is back. After the first Blue album followed the red one, and now here it is the third and yellow cd of the german avant-dub, if this doesn't sound too strange, creator. Nothing new, but that's not bad when talking about someone so talented like Stefan Betke. Those who already know him won't be disapointed, and those who haven't heard Pole yet will discover how digital abstraction, experimental electronic and, of course, dub became a single marvelous thing.

I don't think I could have made it through the first year of my Ph.D. program without this CD. It's deceptively simple, but there's something hypnotic and mesmerizing about crackly loops underscored by rich dub basslines. Interesting, but not so much so that you can't get a lot of writing done.