Comments on: STL, Check Mate

By: Axs

Axs — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:08:21 +0000

Just got the vinyl a week ago, and while I can understand some of the comments here, I must say I totally agree with Chris’s review.

While this record may not sound as fresh as some “cutting edge” techno productions from, say, Dettmann and such, keep in mind that this is dub techno : there are certain rules to the sound, a certain feel to the chords that has to be achieved for the record to be classified in the genre.

This release happens to fall dead center in the rules of the genre, while the much more lauded “Silent State”, retaining some dub techno aspects, was really more house-sounding than dub techno, and in a way I think that’s why people liked it more than this one.

You can’t really have some kind of a “mixed-opinion” on dub techno, I feel it’s one of those genres where there are two categories of people : the ones who love it and the ones who don’t. So for the people who don’t like this release, it’s not really a matter of how much you like or dislike this release in particular, I think you gotta ask yourself if you like the genre enough. I love dub techno, and for me, this release is better than Silent State.

Sorry for the big comment…

By: todd

todd — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 08:20:50 +0000

@jonnyp

speaking of perlon, give me another stl on that label please

By: harpomarx42

harpomarx42 — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:17:39 +0000

Reminds me of a dubbier “Ghosts Have A Heaven” by Actress.

By: jonnyp

jonnyp — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:19:43 +0000

perlon gets bashed for not sounding perlon enough.
echospace gets bashed for sounding too echospace.
funny how it goes.

By: New James

New James — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:34:55 +0000

Blah blah blah, this discussion is as boring as the record.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:28:02 +0000

I agree, the samples do sound similar, actually “check mate” is pretty much a knock off of deepchord 11 which came out in 2001 or so, but I also happen to love that record. The track I was into the most here was the cv313 mix and “Beautiful Mind” which is the B side cut, sure this record isn’t re-inventing the wheel but neither are any of the artist listed in reference by James or others here. I actually think Mike Huckaby was doing more interesting things with this back in 1996 with his Sandcastles remix and his remix of Deepchord was also a template for the copycats of today.

By: Chris Miller

Chris Miller — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:58:41 +0000

I have to agree with what’s being said here. This is just a case of “heard it before”, and nothing really stands out. Currently listening to “From a Distance” and that takes the dub techno sounds and does plenty with them, resulting in something fresh and captivating.

I simply can’t hear anything in “Check Mate” that makes me sit up and take notice. It’s nice enough, but that just doesn’t cut it when there are hundreds of records sounding pretty much the same.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:31:17 +0000

@ james, give me mike huckaby or deepchord over levon vincent, he tried to steal what those guys were doing in the 90′s and made it even more dull, sorry but i do not agree with that comment at all.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:25:30 +0000

@ james, where did you get the release, its not even out yet?

By: James Jays

James Jays — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:21:24 +0000

And before someone says it, I realise that this is a mainly an STL release, but I have the same feelings about it. Despite my posts here I am positive about a lot of music, give me Levon Vincent, Marcel Dettmann, Scuba, Forward Stategy Group, Milton Bradley etc when they are on form and I’m a happy man.