2562 - Aerial (2008, Tectonic)

2562, an artist from the Netherlands named after his postal code, caught my attention with a killer remix of Quantec's "Ray Of Hope" on Echocord Colour under his alias A Made Up Sound. The track begins in a dub techno style, but rather than the 4/4 pulse, the rhythms take their cue from dubstep, with a syncopated, steppy groove, and made me sit up and pay attention to a style that shows a tremendous amount of promise. One short-coming of dub techno is that frequently the beats are a little too slow, or mellow, or minimal to really get on your feet and dance to; it is usually more of a head-nodding type of techno. Dubstep on the other hand is extremely danceable, with (ideally) lots of rhythmic variation, build-ups and break-downs. 2562's debut full-length "Aerial" is an amazing document of the meeting of dub techno with dubstep, moving away from the UK garage-inspired sound of Burial and others, closer to Berlin techno and the Basic Channel sound. All the elements are here; echoing chord stabs, sub bass pulses, skittery percussion fills and off-time beats with a reggae-tinge. The result is both intricate enough for home listening and funky enough for club play, which makes me hope that this sound will become more popular in the near future in US clubs. "Aerial" collects most of the tracks from 2562's intial 12"s on Tectonic, an excellent dubstep label also know for their releases by big-name artists including Pinch, Cyrus, Skream, Martyn and other luminaries in the scene. 2562's material released under the name A Made Up Sound seems to have a more tripped-out, minimal dub-techno influence, and I really enjoyed last year's "Next/Density" 12" on Subsolo Records. A lot of this material sounds like it would mix really well into a straight-ahead techno set (the rolling "Techno Dread" track for example), which makes me hope that the club scene will become more rhythmically dynamic with an influx of good dubstep tracks. Time will tell!