Sunday, March 18, 2018

Decay EP - Thor (Thule Records)





Title: Decay EP
Artist: Thor
Label: Thule
Cat Number: THL024
Genre: Techno

A1: Insanity Dub
A2: Rusty Flashback
B1: Garden Of Corrosion
B2: Pepper Jones

One of the best recent comebacks, political, sporting or otherwise, has been that of Thule. It’s initial contribution to techno, particularly that of the dub-tinged variety, was such a seminal one that its absence was hardly noted. Their golden age, from the mid nineties to early noughties, spanned by a cluster of faultless releases encapsulated everything that is good about the genre, while still managing to keep one eye on the dance floor; brownie points also for coming from Iceland, whose ambience infused the music to give it an otherworldly, glacial dimension.


With all that in mind, it’s worth noting that this crop of recent releases has reinforced Thule’s credentials further. And, as well as giving its artists a new lease of life, served to remind those laboring under the misapprehension that dub techno is just for the head, that there’s life in the old dog yet. Thor was there at the beginning, but only has one release each, on Thule and its sub-label AE. This EP could have been made back at the label’s inception. However, the fact that it’s coming out now and sounds as indispensable as everything else on the label means that there’s always room for second acts in dub techno.

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