Dub Safari - Cold (Thule)

Title: Dub Safari

Artist: Cold

Label: Thule

Cat Number: THL023

Genre: Techno

1: Natures Call

2: Fractal Memory

3: Dub Safari

4: Early Reflections

5: Moonlight

Cold’s mammoth hiatus doesn't seem to have been in vain, as this is the second release we’ve now had from him this year. Whether this marks the beginning of Prince-like levels of creativity we’ll have to wait and see, but somehow I doubt it. Let’s just be thankful for what we have in the here and now, which is an EP that builds nicely on ‘Exiles’ from a few months back, and consolidates both Cold’s, and Thule’s position as arbiters of discerning dub techno that isn’t dull. All the tracks on this release are versatile, inasmuch as they ably straddle the dance floor and headspace without visibly paying lip service to either, and shimmer due to a layered production style which, while not conspicuously innovative, reeks of mastery. ‘Natures Call’ is the only track to go off in a slightly different direction here, but Cold’s cosmic control makes it feel like the opening chapter of an electronic Icelandic saga, the likes of which should be sound tracking a superior, hypothetical Viking – inspired ‘Game of Thrones’. We can but dream.