Search - Pole :: 3

3
Pole
3
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Alternative Rock, International Music, Special Interest, Pop
 
  •  Track Listings (8) - Disc #1

Stefan Betke knows dance music--he masters it all day long for Berlin's Basic Channel and Chain Reaction labels. But as Pole, the sounds he records are more suited to dancing in your head than on the floor. Betke works wit...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Pole
Title: 3
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Matador Records
Original Release Date: 6/20/2000
Release Date: 6/20/2000
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Alternative Rock, International Music, Special Interest, Pop
Styles: Ambient, Electronica, IDM, Techno, Europe, Continental Europe, Experimental Music, Dance Pop, Easy Listening
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 744861042822

Synopsis

Amazon.com
Stefan Betke knows dance music--he masters it all day long for Berlin's Basic Channel and Chain Reaction labels. But as Pole, the sounds he records are more suited to dancing in your head than on the floor. Betke works with extremely basic elements: bass, echo, and the omnipresent crackle of a Waldorf 4-pole filter (thus the name; FYI, filters are synthesizer components that filter out specified frequencies) that he dropped and broke. Samples of the cracked component's static emissions are the grainy irritants from which he creates lovely audio pearls. Betke's by no means the only electronic musician working with sonic glitches, but his knack for writing seductive, mysterious melodies makes him the most accessible one. Betke's tunes swirl in and out of deep, dubby rhythms like Augustus Pablo's melodica, and pan around the stereo spectrum like swallows on speed. --Bill Meyer

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CD Reviews

An obvious progression
Matthew D. Mercer | Chicago, IL United States | 07/05/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Stefan Betke made quite a stir when his first Pole album (blue cover, titled "CD1") hit the streets. Suddenly every publication from The Wire to Spin was raving about his fresh approach to abstract electronic music. When examining all three of Pole's releases, there is an obvious progression from the first to the newest. Regardless of whether it is a result of being absorbed in his malfunctioning technology the first goround, or whether it was a reservation to allow his influences to run free, we're all glad that Betke began to incorporate the dub influence more obviously that he hinted at so quietly on the debut. 3 finds these influences cropping up even more often than on its predecessor. As an album, it offers little new other than this more immediate dub slant, as it continues the tradition of crackly, beatless experiments in audio. However, fans will not be disappointed, and for newcomers this is as good a place as any to begin."
A Fresh perspective, but only one perspective.
Dirk Hugo | Cape Town, South Africa | 11/08/2000
(3 out of 5 stars)

"Stefan Betke's latest dubbed-out offering of re-organised clicks and pops succeeds by challenging our notions of what constitutes "legitimate" musical source. The overall sound picture is even less tonal than conventional dub and the album makes up for this by means of its novel textures, which give rise to innovative interplay between rhythmic elements. However, the same cannot be said for the melodic and harmonic ends of the scale, and sitting through an entire album's worth of such a limited sonic perspective can be quite trying."
Pole 3
Patrick Burke | TIGARD, OR United States | 06/16/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hats off to Stefan Betke for Pole 3, the first CD I've heard in years that I had to listen to for days on end after I bought it. What I really like about this music is its warmth. It feels like sitting inside one's living room on a rainy Sunday morning with a fire in the fireplace and a book you can't put down.This music is calming and intriguing at the same time. The use of scratches and pops is so on the mark. The overall tonality and the interesting bass lines contribute to the muted beauty of the work while the higher end sounds eliminate any chance of it becoming monotonous."