Little is known about »Dreamtech«. The record originally appeared on the Japanese label Paratone sometime in the 90s, but now the Berlin label Transmigration, whose catalogue also includes other tasteful reissues, is reissuing it. In the first place, »Labanba« mixes instrumental and vocal samples from an African piece with a rumbling bassline and tranquil dub references that sound distinctively British. »Housepod« retains the chill-out mode, but is a touch more psychedelic and deliberately overextended. This is especially true of the drumming, which does not invite the listener to relax with its polyrhythms. Melodically, too, this excellently cobbled-together patchwork opens up new horizons time and again, constantly performing new acrobatics. Sometimes a straight beat mixes into the commotion, then again Middle Eastern percussion can be heard in the room, a track for the eternal comedown. The title track as the final track opens with the sound of bells and subaquatic synthesiser moans, before an ethno sample – these were presumably other times – pushes its way to the surface again. Afterwards, the beat can’t decide which genre it wants to conform to. While the melodic set pieces between house and trance are slightly fragmented, and everything is arranged slightly askew, the last number is probably the strongest: a challenging three-track chillout that might well have been played at Spiral Tribe raves.
Dreamtech
