This is the first sonar-phonic ninfo we've been sent by the London based Leaf label and it looks to be a bit of a corker. Keep 'em coming...

'Pole' EP - Released on Monday 9th March 1998 (12" only)

If the name of the Dubplates And Mastering studio in Berlin means anything at all to you, then you're probably already on the edge of your seat waiting to hear this record. To be fair, Dubplates And Mastering probably doesn't mean much to most people - such is the mystery that shrouds the family of labels spawned from the original Basic Channel blueprint - but to those who know it, Dubplates And Mastering is responsible for fostering some of the finest, deepest, most enduring techno ever made. Similar to the resident Chain Reaction label, which broke out of the close confines of techno from the moment it came into being, Pole's music can't really be considered techno in the traditional sense of the word.

Stefan Betke is an employee of Dubplates And Mastering, and Pole is his own musical project, taking the Berlin sound to its furthest extreme to date. Characteristically, the name Pole refers not to the magnetic north and south of the earth (nor the stick of the same name!), but to the classical analogue Waldorf 4 Pole-Filter. To some degree an accidental by-product resulting from experiments with that instrument, the concept of Pole is to process, arrange, filter, duplicate and loop assorted sounds produced by interference. Consequently they form a minimal framework of rhythms in their own right, onto which fragments of melody are projected in a dubwise fashion.

The result is organic; shapeshifting rhythm and sound, which burns itself into your consciousness but barely leaves a trace.