The long awaited return of Stephan Betke's Pole project, re-inventing his broken fracture of sound into something altogether new and substantially more beat-driven. Much has been said of Betke's collaboration here with Five Deez frontman Fat Jon and, thankfully, it's injected a certain jig into proceedings that marks a new process for one of Berlin's most innovative operators. The formulaic construction of dub emissions and broken filters has thankfully been adapted into a precision construction of hip hop beats, bass stabs and Jon's meliflous, rich narrative. Opening track "Slow Motion" explores this equation perfectly, Jon's crisp flow guided by a dense arrangement of Melodica, gliding bass stabs, and a beat that utilises dub signatures with a hip hop vibe - a conceit that's repeated throughout the album and goes some way to branding it with the distinct sound it attains so brilliantly. Jon appears on four of the nine tracks on offer, his vibrant rhymes juxtaposed perfectly with instrumental gems like "Back Home" and their precise, brilliant amalgamation of traditions. This is a deep, bone shaking, jiggified collection of tracks that takes us all into a new cross-generic era once again, some achievement.
