123 cover

123

Released

Stefan Betke, aka Pole, made three brilliant albums between 1998 and 2000, each of which offered variations on a unique but highly influential sound. His vision of techno — for that’s what this is, sort of — is built on a foundation of deep, almost womblike dub bass lines, but actual beats are mostly absent. The surface of the music, meanwhile, is made of layers of static, soft hisses, and tiny glitchy pops, like amplified vinyl crackle raised to the level of a compositional element rather than a byproduct of playback. This isn’t music you dance to; rather, it embraces the methods of dance music in order to induce a trance state in the listener.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
Morton Feldman: For John Cage cover

Morton Feldman: For John Cage

Darragh Morgan, John Tilbury
Morton Feldman: Trio cover

Morton Feldman: Trio

Marc Sabat, Rohan de Saram, Aki Takahashi
Live at Birdland cover

Live at Birdland

John Coltrane
The 5th Power cover

The 5th Power

Lester Bowie
History Gets Ahead of the Story cover

History Gets Ahead of the Story

Jeff Cosgrove, John Medeski, Jeff Lederer
Fire Illuminations cover

Fire Illuminations

Wadada Leo Smith, Orange Wave Electric
Urban Bushmen cover

Urban Bushmen

Art Ensemble of Chicago
Vertical Ascent cover

Vertical Ascent

Moritz von Oswald Trio