[Ghostleighdubz]

One of the top reasons for my continued patronage of record stores is getting to gab with the people behind the counter. Blogs and forums certainly offer a wealth of information about choice new releases, but it’s pretty hard to beat a recommendation from someone whose job involves listening to practically every piece of wax that passes through the door. I can’t think of a more consistently awesome way for getting new sounds on my radar. So on a recent trip to Dope Jams in Brooklyn, when a clerk preferential to classic house and techno slipped the new (and unfamiliar to me) Ghostleigh 12″ into my stack and uttered something to the effect of, “I’m not usually into dubstep, but holy shit, dude!” I certainly took notice.

Lo and behold, “holy shit, dude!” is pretty much right on, and I can absolutely see why a guy somewhat suspicious of bass wobble would get very excited about Dortmund, Germany’s Thomas Goertz. Established in 2008, his Ghostleighdubz imprint has been quietly releasing pitched up and utterly epic dub workouts exclusively of his own making. We’re all pretty accustomed to hearing dubstep records indebted to techno at this moment in dance music, but it’s less often we’ll hear a techno record — and I’d argue that Ghostleighdubz 005, “Continuum,” is first and foremost a techno record — taking so liberally from dubstep.

B1 “Tumble” (which, let’s face it, should really have made the A-side) steps with twitchy dexterity like so many 2562 releases, but Goertz pushes his dub atmospherics — sheets of minor chords as chilly and heavy as a glacier — farther to the front of the mix than practically anyone working at this tempo. It’s those massive (and very techno) vamps that become the real focus here, not Goertz’s affinity for syncopation. The recent “Dub Shed” 12″ on Subsolo makes for a decent stylistic approximation, but this track goes deeper and darker, ultimately finding greater parity with echospace [detroit]’s or even Chain Reaction’s back catalogs. The A-side goes somewhat jazzier, fusing woozy Martyn organs with classy dub pads. Between the stuttering title track and the manic “Nektar,” I’d pick the latter: Veering towards 4/4 and featuring the sort of warped micro-flourishes that have been the hallmark of Actress’ career thus far, Goertz renders out-of-control bongos into something downright stately. Impeccably arranged, playable across both sides (even the minuscule B2, “Wait,” comes off as something more than throwaway), and as in-dialogue with oonce-oonce as it is womp-womp, “Continuum” has likely found its way into all sorts of employee hold piles. If I were you, I wouldn’t pass on it, either.