Searching for the one
The other day I was having this really interesting conversation with a young Dub Techno artist. Really young, a good handful of releases. Not surprisingly, we exchanged a few recommendations, some classics included. After most conversations like this, I am happily going through artists’ portfolios, and I usually find one or the other selection to add to the 8000.
This time it was sort of the other way round. When we looked back at timeless tracks, I mentioned the name Dub Taylor, and the guy went like who? For a moment I was a little puzzled. I was absolutely certain that Alex Krüger would be known to anyone who is into Dub Techno. Looks like that’s not necessarily the case.
I sent a link over so the dude could have a little taste of “Fig. 2”. Much to his delight. He agreed – it’s a real beauty. Fifteen minutes of early Dub Techno tranquility, tight and minimal, warm and funky, marvelously grooving elegance.
There used to be this bar in Frankfurt called Kleinlaut & Brown. Never knew the reasons behind the name, but I liked the “kleinlaut” part. It more or less means “abashed” or “meek” in German, but literally it translates as “small-loud”, the regretful and small quietness you carry when you landed on your nose after having been a little too loud, a little too boastful.
The Kleinlaut, as we called it, was both small and loud. A tight little DJ corner at the front end of the bar, two small but okay speakers on both sides, so close that you didn’t need a monitor speaker to do your job. It definitely wasn’t a chillout place, and no-one ever complained about the music being too loud, with the program usually circling around various shades of Tech House.
I liked playing there, and on a lot of evenings, this was the kind of stuff I started with. Dub Taylor, Villalobos and his Bass Queen, Mark Thibideau… it never occurred to me that I was playing Dub Techno, the term hadn’t yet made its way to me, I looked at it as a warmer, more elegant corner of Minimal.
But who cares? I played all kinds of stuff and it was mostly just fine with the bartenders. The only time they wrinkled their noses was when I started to play Breaks. I think it was a Plump DJs track that made one of them walk over to me and say that only guys like this kind of music, and that it’s never good when the girls don’t dance. Not that anyone was dancing much at the bar, but I could see the point.
As simple and functional as “Fig. 2” may be, it’s a tricky one to put into the middle of a mix. You do your prelistening, adjust the speed, pair it nicely with the Thibideau, let them play with each other, and just when you want to slide on over, you realize that the 1 wasn’t where you thought it was. Stumble, unscramble, get back into the groove, start again, anywhere after the first minute.
It was a minor reason why I would put this at the beginning of a set – the more important one being its generous (and thoroughly justified) playing time of 15 minutes. I could nicely settle in, get myself a good glass of red wine and gently slide into the night behind the decks. Smooth.
“Fig. 2” is such a deep classic that it’s easy to forget there’s a second side to this. “Blueprint” is even trickier regarding the usually simple question of finding the 1. This time things seem all straight and easy for the first two and a half minutes. But then the handclaps turn everything upside down. They’re not residing on their accustomed 2 and 4, they moved to 1 and 3, and that keeps messing with your mind. You can’t adjust like you did on “Fig. 2”, you try to hear it the other way round, but no, it doesn’t work, and then you just surrender to the claps having a weird day.
Around 2007 Alex Krüger started to publish more techy work as Tigerskin, slowly moving away from the Dub Techno roots of the Dub Taylor world. I didn’t really move along. The vinyl count says it all. 14:1 in favor of Dub Taylor. 14 is probably also the number of movies I watched that featured Dub Taylor, the actor. But that’s a whole different story.
“Fig. 2” is still a great one. I’d always love to play at a place where this is the right kind of track to choose.
Release for Review:
DUB TAYLOR – FIG. 2 / BLUEPRINT – RAUM…MUSIK – MUSIK008
Get the vinyl on Discogs: Click