*** Pole

3

(Matador)

On 3, Berlin's Stefan Betke (a/k/a Pole) again explores the undercurrents of electronic dub -- the low below the low end, descending into sonic pits where the usually unheard details reside. Much of the album is like listening from under the floorboards to a combination of digital programming and a laid-back Hammond organ. Simulated deep-vinyl scratches and pops pepper the compositions, crackling against muffled thumps that move to the forefront in the absence of vocals, drums, guitars, and dance-floor grooves. Pole's sonic filterings are all about distance and restraint, and the contrasts on 3 are subtle ones. It takes a few listens before you can distinguish the walking bass line in "Karussell" from the steel drum that flits through "Überfahrt" or the clarinettish gurgle in "Strand." To most ears such subterranean esoterica is at best serviceable as background ambiance. But using sounds that would ordinarily be discarded as textural debris, Betke has fashioned a serene hideaway of minimalist reverberations and somnambulant sparks.

-- Tristram Lozaw