Resoe: Into the Black Void of Space
Echocord

A veteran of the Copenhagen dub-techno scene, Dennis Bøg brings more than two decades of experience as a DJ, producer, and label head (of Baum Records) to his debut Resoe full-length The Black Void of Space …. Some might be familiar with Bøg's work under the Dennis Uprock alias or perhaps for the twelve-inch releases he's issued in partnership with Echocord founder Kenneth Christiansen under the name Pattern Repeat.

That the album appears on Echocord says much about the kind of material one expects to hear, and on that count the project assuredly doesn't disappoint. What we've got here are seventy-four minutes of deep dub-techno, with most of it new material, the exception being three tracks that appeared on the recent Abstrakt Dimenzions EP. In many pieces, creamy, clangorous chords echo and pan across thick webs of bass-heavy atmosphere. In keeping with the genre, Bøg gives much attention to the very definition of the sounds themselves, whether it be the thwack of the snare or the heartbeat pulse of the bass. He also makes his case with admirable dispatch in twelve settings that, with one exception, fall into the five- to seven-minute range.

The Black Void of Space … has its share of languorous moments but also its share of uptempo steppers too. Both “Mutation” and “Dubcuttin',” for example, barrel forth with mighty springs in their steps, while “Radikal Alterations” might be slower but still hits hard with a heavy, electro-tinged thrust. In the radiance of its synthetic treatments, the dreamcasting “Polarized” exudes a sheen and polish that's more suggestive of Detroit than Copenhagen. Elsewhere, ominous winds blow through “Demoon,” whose Black Ark ancestry is audible in the track's classic bass pulse and skanking rhythms. “Ventura” and “Syntax Error” are about as deep as the genre gets, and though their style isn't unfamiliar, indebted as it is to the Basic Channel-Chain Reaction-Deepchord meets Echospace axis, it's nevertheless satisfying to bathe again in such oceanic material.

January 2011