| ~Scape reissues Pole's legendary first three consecutive albums, 1 (1998), 2 (1999), and 3 (2000) in an ultimate trilogy 3CD package, including four bonus tracks. This reissue is a deliberate statement reinforced by the numbering and stringent monochrome three-color cover art. Minimalism as a form of art. A statement not unlike Yves Klein's blue canvasses, a viewer might take it for a mere joke or provocation, but will soon enough find himself drawn in and devoured by the maelstrom-like expanse of intense color. Stefan Betke's music can have a similar effect. Here, reductionism and minimalism do not equal austerity, but a sensuous, almost baroque experience, with oscillations produced by crackles and bass that envelop the body and leave it vibrating. It all started with the analog Waldorf 4 Pole filter that gave Betke his memorable moniker. Inspired by the defective equipment's distinctive crackles, Pole took them as a starting point for his equally simple and subtle sound layers. Here, rhythmic textures and warmly pulsing bass lines join in play, and, at least from 2, experience a slow shift towards minimal dub. Pole's music has a unique way of oscillating between euphony and avant-garde, between pop and experiment. While many of his electronic avant-garde peers swore off all danceable elements during the latter half of the 1990s, Pole decided to walk the edge, championing both radical reductionism and groovy, almost psychedelic dream states. Tracks like "Kirschenessen" or "Hafen" give ample proof that his music does not exhaust itself in mere functionalism, but encourages new and poetic associations. By now, all this is history. Like many genres and movements before it, techno has been declared dead more than once. Yet this does not matter to Pole one iota. He never restricted his trademark sound to techno or any other genre and his trilogy, a classic already, still resonates in contemporary electronic music. Pole's unmistakable crackles have infiltrated mainstream pop and even the burgeoning dubstep scene. Now, with the reissue of his first three albums, listeners get a chance to experience these three records as a coherent entity and explore this defining benchmark in the history of electronic music. |
