deadbeat: eight

Of all the personalities to emerge from the Mutek-affiliated Montreal electronic music scene, Scott Monteith aka Deatbeat has unquestionably established himself as one of dub techno's greatest champions, showing himself to be its most prolific and restless spirit. Having burrowed to the very deepest depths of echo and dread of the Jamaican variety with 2011's hypnotic Drawn and Quartered( BLKRTZ 001CD), Deadbeat once again sets sail into uncharted waters with his latest hour long salvo, humbly entitled Eight. Proceeding over eight tracks and a wide range of tempos, and featuring collaborations with fellow Canadians Danuel Tate, Mathew Jonson, and outer national techno prankster Dandy Jack, Eight is without a doubt the most upfront, muscular Deadbeat record to date. Recorded in his new studio in Berlin, Deadbeat utilizes the unmistakable analog low end and full spectrum bombast from Moog and Prophet 600 synths, and his new rhythms show a level of intensity and raw power not seen before in his previous work. In a genre dominated by stoic reverence to the creative framework laid down by Mark Ernestus and Mortiz von Oswald's Basic Channel and related projects of the mid '90s, Monteith has consistently charted his own course over the last 13 years, tearing up and re-writing the rule book several times over. Deadbeat is as restless as ever and Eigth firmly establishes his position as one of electronic music's most distinctive voices.