For many minimalist musicians this album of System project released on Scape records still remains a model for imitation and worshipping. And such attitude will apparently stay the same for a long time. Welcome to the System which joins and widens sound ideas at the expence of individuals taking part in it. Projects like System can be rarely met on electronic scene and in case when the musicians' ideas are successfully fulfilled, such music becomes invaluable. As concerns System, everything happened in this very way. Cooperation of three creative individuals - Thomas Knak (aka Opiate), Anders Remmer (aka Dub Tractor) and Jepser Skaaning (aka Acoustic) led to the following result: this trio released an album with similar name and it became some kind of Bible for sound-designers all over the world. In their experimental work guys took a standart set of components for dub-ingeneers as an object for their research work. Thanks to this set nine tracks of the album were recorded: reverberation, echo, bass and drums. In general, it must be said that it's quite an easy scheme. Even in Bob Marley's times engineers in audio recording studios of Jamaica made records of such kind. Nowadays white musicians create their dub tracks on their own. Besides dub itself isn't already the prerogative of only black culture.
The first track "PPG" shows summer mood presented in the whole album - it starts with crystal, broken sounds of keyboards joined in the course of time by other micro-sounds. Track "Spy" is dub itself: lots of downfalls, pauses, the melody is led by sounds of sampled guitar - it's like hypnotic travel through city desert, everything inside is heard in tiniest details.
"Invade" continues the theme but starting with sharp clicks which are turning into some melted sunny mix of dub/down tempo music. Ideal unpredictable theme for a walk to a bar or neighbouring beach.
"Micro" corresponds very well to the album's title - micro-dub noises, rustles and hissings + exact, prudent bass line, creeping crystal sounds of keys remind of air bubbles going up to water surface.
"Park" stabilizes all surrounding rustles with its first hypnotic sample occupying the whole sound panorama. Then rhythm and the leading melody appear - obviously underwater one. Perhaps "Park" is just a walk of scuba diver along sea-bed as the next track "Please" throws the listeners ashore to other feelings, air and mood.
"SK" - the return. It's the way further from sea cost to mountainous landscapes. Here we can hear short improvisation of playing with light dub.
"Red Click" shows the whole endlessness of sound experiment with looped rustles all string ripplings of the system hanging on wires.
The last track with laconic title "2" is itself the true reggae-dub reminding very much joint space set of musicians from Denmark and Jamaica. The last meteorite which flew by the listeners is in fact just a fallen broken off microelement. Let's see if there will be continuation of this project and if it will be interesting for the musicians.
- Scape records
- System