New material from Denmarks 3 Electronic pioneers is a quite rare experience.
No wonder when you look at the groupmembers solo-output and label involvement. Many of Anders Remmer´s Dub Tractor releases on City Center Offices as well as Thomas Knak´s Opiate releases on April, Morr Music and Raster Noton (with Alva Noto as Opto) has long been acclaimed as milestones in modern electronic music.
Thomas Knak has also been busy with his Hobby Industries label, producing for Björk on the Vespertine album as well as remixing for Efterklang, Sketch Show and Ryuichi Sakamoto. And then there is Jesper Skaanings´s Acustic project, which was featured on Rump in 2005 with the ”Welcome” album.
So after 5 years of silence, System is back with an EP entitled “Tempo EP” that shows the trio in more unfamiliar upbeat territories. This doesn´t really come as a big surprise though. Since the early Future 3-days, the trio has found pleasure in experimenting with different electronic genres of the day, from the melodic dub-ambient on the debut ”We are the Future 3” to the understated escapades into drum´n´bass on their breakthrough hit: ”The Boy From West Bronx” from 1998´s ”Stay With”.
Where ”Like...” from 2001 was close to being pop-electronica, the ”System” album from 2002 (released on Scape) saw the trio break away from the melodicism that had characterized their work since the beginning.
The sound on the album was so strinkingly different that the group felt a new name, System, was necessery.
In a way “Tempo EP” continues the sound of the System album, only this time presented in a slightly faster tempo, hence the title. It´s no secret that the group have been listening to two-step and dub-step, but instead of being a rip off of the genre, System incorporates the UK-styles into their own sound universe, creating something that sounds much more like System than like Skream.
PRESS:
"Killer und immer wieder Killer!" - Thaddi/DE:BUG *****
"Forhenværende Future 3 skuffer ikke på ny EP, der beviser veteranernes sublime sans for programmering." - Morten Sternberg/GAFFA (DK)
"Tempo is a very worthwhile EP and it’s a pleasant surprise for me that the 3 members of System are still capable of coming together and producing something that is both fresh and cohesive." - Igloomag (US)
"Just as the whole dubstep scene is getting a little repetitive it's nice to see some producers coming from a totally different angle throwing their unique view into the canon." - Boomkat (UK)
"Tempo EP giver et godt billede af, hvor System er henne nu. Bandets take på den engelske dubstep er fint, og især de midterste numre, hvor tempoet er skruet op, er herligt aktiverende." - Undertoner (DK)
"Den danske trio System, et slags sideprojekt for Future 3, prøver også at udvide click-dub-lydens rammer på en ny udgivelse, men strategien og resultatet befinder sig i en lidt anden boldgade. Hvor Pole udvikler en sammenhængende og konsistent verden ud fra en stringent indre logik i sit minimalistiske udgangspunkt, synes Anders Remmer, Thomas Knak og Jesper Skaaning i stedet at bruge en langt mere velkendt fremgangsmåde, nemlig inspiration ude fra. Og her er det næppe overraskende, at dupstep har udgjort en yderst fristende inspirationskilde. Det er i hvert fald det indtryk man umiddelbart får af Tempo, som nok beholder en del klikken og knitren, men samtidig også inkorporerer hårdere og mere skurrende rytmelyde, samt ikke mindst tunge, abrupte basgange. En sådan påvirkning fra dubstep er på mange måder oplagt, for et eller andet sted har de to genrer meget til fælles, om ikke andet så i hvert fald rent teknisk, og der findes da også allerede andre eksempler på dubstep/electronica-hybrider. System forbliver dog i den sammenhæng tro mod de minimalistiske rødder og præsenterer en mere underspillet måde at fusionere tingene på end f.eks. den svulmende vellyd hos Boxcutter, som ellers kunne være en oplagt sammenligning at drage. Man kan så mene, at enkelte elementer stadig lider en smule under de velkendte dubtronica-klicheer, som f.eks. den i passager ekstremt forudsigelige måde, der bliver brugt ekko på, men overordnet er der helt klart tale om et vellykket projekt: Det klæder dem at blive lidt mindre tilbagelænede og lidt mere hårde i filten, ikke mindst fordi det ikke virker forceret, men snarere som en oplagt udvidelse af deres vokabularium – et bevis for, at velfriseret dansk designer-electronica kan bevæge sig ud på dansegulvet og samtidig forblive tro mod sig selv." - Geiger (DK)
Rump Recordings was founded by Jens Berents Christiansen in Copenhagen in 2003 with an aim to release uncompromising
electronic and electro-acoustic music.
The label does not attempt to focus solely on one genre but prefers to zoom in on the un-categorizable fields that emerge when artists start to experiment and push the existing boundaries of music....more
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