Vertical Ascent

Through Basic Channel and Rhythm And Sound his collaborations with Mark Ernestus Moritz von Oswald first of all conjured from thin air, then comprehensively mapped out the grounds of a deep exchange between real-deal Jamaican dub and classic, Detroit-style techno. The duos accomplishment and influence are immense. The repercussions of their work within electronic dance music have been incalculable. Take Don Letts word for it when he is asked in a recent documentary film which dub music holds sway nowadays, he says there is nothing out there for him, nothing from JA, or the US, only Rhythm And Sound. And the cutting-edge originality of Burial, for one notable example amongst hundreds, is steeped in the Berliners aesthetic and musical innovations of the past fifteen years. Though emphatically a departure, Vertical Ascent retraces various signatures of the earlier styles the fastidious density of sound, the massive bass and detailed upper registers (a frequency massage, Ricardo Villalobos has called the album), the stripped, stepping repetitiousness, the seriousness.