Available on: Honest Jon’s LP
When you’ve mastered a sound, what do you do? Continue putting out endless variations on the same theme, boiling the pot, hoping that the fans continue to lap it up and not notice your flagging interest? Or do you do something completely different, flip the script — change the game again? It’s clearly the latter option, and the road less travelled, that’s the path trodden by eternal innovator Moritz Von Oswald.
For most people, being half of 2MB, Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound and Maurizio, those constant signifiers and Rosetta stones of dub techno that almost single-handedly invented a shape-shifting style that has since spawned zillions of copyists, few as good as their inspiration, and co-founding the Chain Reaction label, would be enough. But it seems that Moritz has left that period of his career far behind him now, with the release of this, his third album as part of a series (after Vertical Ascent and Live in New York) with the Moritz Von Oswald Trio — lush, meandering collections that combine electronics, slivers of techno, jazz and post-rock improvisation to create something spellbinding and special indeed.
Horizontal Structures is not for those with short attention spans, nor is it really true techno in any shape or form (although it’s doubtful rabid ravers would really be interested anyway). Instead, over four long tracks, Moritz, alongside Max Loderbauer of Sun Electric and Sasu Ripatti of Vladislav Delay, with occasional interjections from Paul St. Hilaire on guitar, invoke a fathoms-deep, enveloping and meditative miasma that, given the right listening circumstances, totally transports the listener. ‘Track 1’ (titles are for wimps) starts with a slow, watery clavinet riff, that if added to a 4/4 beat would clearly be deep house heaven; instead, we are introduced to a slowly evolving world of tapping percussion, distant electric guitar magma flows, and dominant synth pads, where fragments of violin emerge from the mire. It sounds as if it’s been recorded in a huge, derelict power station. ‘Track 2’, again, teases with a prodding, echoic techno riff, then expands outwards, a double bass, courtesy of guest Marc Muellbauer, repeating its mantra over spare congos and dissonant, distant noise; the third track returns to Moritz’s original dub inspiration, is an exercise in echo deck manipulation and sub-aqua moods, and is the most immediate — if anything on this record can be described that way — thing here. The final tune, a 20-minute expanded exploration of electro Afrobeat dub oddness, is compounded by jazz improv touches.
Drawing on everything from Herbie Hancock’s far-out late ’70s Dedication period, to the zonked Krautrock of Can or Cluster, to Lee Perry’s weirdest dub moments, it’s brilliant. Self-indulgent sure, but what did you expect? A record that some will treasure, some will sneer at.
Ben Murphy
