If Dial have always lived in the dark haze of the northern winter, then, until recently, its artists have been in a double darkness, being in the shadow of Peter Kersten’s exquisite Sten and Lawrence releases. Along with Efdemin and Nike.Bordom, Pantha du Prince have recently stepped into the silvery light with releases that clearly sublimate “the sadness” into their own high-gloss vision. “Lichten” and “Walden” complement each other neatly: the former bounces along on a bassline that wants to keep evaporating into chimes, but never quite makes it there, (anti-) climaxing somewhere between thawing and freezing. “Walden” is the shyer cousin, but like “Lichten,” works on a grand scale, slowly winding and unwinding itself around sounds reminiscent of distant cathedral bells, long lost summer dance-floors and sudden, brief cloudbreaks. Dial, like Anders Ilar, Claro Intelecto, and recent work by Jacek Sienkiewicz, all seem to be drawing us back to that vision of deep, lonely techno that exists far away from the sweat and hedonism of its others.

Dial / dial 29
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[Peter Chambers]