Where does techno end, and dub begin? Since the late '90s, Deadbeat has explored both sides of the equation, swinging his pendulum between the two genres on recordings for labels like Cynosure, Revolver, and ~scape. Following in the wake of dub-techno pioneers like Pole, Deadbeat has explored half-speed exercises in sonar ping and pooling delay, where every bass drop explodes like a depth charge in unfathomably pressurized waters. And as one half of the hillbilly-techno duo Crackhaus, influenced by hyperkinetic masters like Matthew Herbert and Akufen, Monteith has dug his fingers into every angular crevasse of dance music's splintery, up-tempo jig. The two sides come together on his new EP, Preliminary Finding . 'Abu Ghraib (Rage Mix)' sands down Chicago house's jagged, jacking swing until every surface is smooth. Beneath its buffered skin, jazzy keyboards flare, dueling bass lines knit a new low-end DNA, and spinning dubwise squeals scrape the horizon like a lighthouse beam. If that makes you dizzy, just listen for the sample of a North American radio announcer spewing right-wing filth in the introduction to 'Abu Ghraib (Tension Dub)'. There's rage here, but it lurks just below the glassy, buffered surface of a track that seems to float in space, uploading information from a distant island soundclash. Its only tether is a spooling acid-rock guitar line loosely linked to a mothership set adrift for eternity. Mike Shannon's remix of 'Texas Tea' brings things back to Montreal, where snow-crusted boots stomp on iron steps and the horizon glows with a peculiar northern light. An emissary of a global techno community, Shannon knows what it takes to kick-start a dance floor, and his skipping, rolled-shouldered mix carries the motion forward from an easy ambient breathing exercise to a furious workout of drums and battered bells; you can feel the energy, as mercurial as the northern lights, prickling on your skin.
