Mikkel Metal
Rebuild
Echocord
Although Mikkel Metal hails from Copenhagen, there’s something almost Balearic about Rebuild, the dub techno veteran’s excellent new EP. It’s not that his low-slung rhythms have changed all that much; the title track, in particular, wraps its steady pulse in sheets of reverb and soft static. Even Luke Hess’s remix of the song, which is slightly more bumping, feels like it’s strutting through six inches of molasses—delicious, high-quality molasses, perhaps, but molasses all the same.
Elsewhere, however, the vibes—and the tempos—begin to shift. “Bend” brings some plinky synths into the mix, but it’s the gently noodling guitar that transports the proceedings to a sunny plaza on the Mediterranean coast. “Stream” goes fully psychedelic, slowing the beat to a veritable crawl as the song’s dubby riffs and husky vocal passages hypnotically stretch out toward the horizon. (And for those who prefer and even more zonked-out experience, Frenk Dublin’s “Deep Space Rework” of the song offers up six-plus minutes of comfy disassociation.)
“Midnight” closes out the record, and it dispenses with drums almost entirely, opting instead for a kind of deconstructed pop that blends earnest songcraft (and some softly twanging guitars) with the restless sensibility of vintage IDM. Sonically speaking, the track is miles away from where Rebuild begins, but it’s also a reminder that any attempt to tag Metal as simply a dub techno artist is doing him—and his music—a serious disservice.