Pole
b. Stefan Betke, 18 February 1967, Germany. Betke juxtaposes a love of avant garde and experimental electronic music (To Rococo Rot, Oval) with an affinity for the wayward studio experimentalism of low-end pioneers such as King Tubby and Augustus Pablo, to create original and genuinely radical music. Betke's recording moniker is derived from the Waldorf 4 Pole-Filter utilized to generate the random, aural detritus that forms the basis of the Berlin-based artist's music. Using the electronic clicks, crackles and snaps produced by the (malfunctioning) machine as the starting point for his surprisingly melodic studio investigations, Betke reconfigures these sonic glitches (akin to vinyl scratches) with a heavy bass pulse to create Pole's esoteric sine-wave dub. Curiously, Betke told The Wire magazine that he wanted hearing this music to be analogous to "eating choco crossies or sitting in a chair and dreaming." Betke was, notably, a cutting engineer at Berlin's famous Dubplates and Mastering Studio, giving rise to the suggestion that the Pole aesthetic might, perversely, be informed by Betke's role in eliminating glitches/interference from other people's recording. This is something that Betke has refuted, asserting that "I am cutting vinyl just to earn money. It is just a job." He also founded and curates Scape Records, releasing tracks by other like-minded experimenters. Of particular note is Kit Clayton's Nek Sanalet, which successfully merges terse digital noise with echoic studio manipulation.
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- Karussell
- Hafen
- Tanzen
- Klettern
- Taxi
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