Echospace is the collaborative venture of DeepChord's Rod Modell and Soultek's Steve Hitchell, and this is their first full-length release on the Modern Love label. Detroit's Rod Modell is one of the most noted producers o... more »perating in the dub-infused aftermath of the Basic Channel axis and all its myriad offshoots. His series of 12"s on his own eponymous imprint were released at the tail-end of the '90s and the beginning of the new century, and are considered by many as the natural progression from the effervescent, super-dense techno of Berlin's Chain Reaction. Following an extended hiatus, Rod Modell has re-wired his studio again and is once again receiving great acclaim for his low-end techno variations. Chicago's Steve Hitchell is a longtime DeepChord cohort and a noted producer in his own right -- most notably under the Soultek moniker. The Coldest Season was produced using nothing but vintage analog equipment: Roland Space Echo, Echoplex, Korg tape delay, vintage signal processors, noise generators, Sequential Circuits 8-bit samplers & numerous analog synthesizers. This project goes back to the heady days of Berlin-based proto dub/techno variations, recorded and produced in Detroit and Chicago. Three of the world's most important techno cities colliding to form a whole that perfectly bridges the gap between The Motor City's emotive arrangements, The Windy City's percussive robustness, and Berlin's life-altering Basic Channel continuum.« less
Echospace is the collaborative venture of DeepChord's Rod Modell and Soultek's Steve Hitchell, and this is their first full-length release on the Modern Love label. Detroit's Rod Modell is one of the most noted producers operating in the dub-infused aftermath of the Basic Channel axis and all its myriad offshoots. His series of 12"s on his own eponymous imprint were released at the tail-end of the '90s and the beginning of the new century, and are considered by many as the natural progression from the effervescent, super-dense techno of Berlin's Chain Reaction. Following an extended hiatus, Rod Modell has re-wired his studio again and is once again receiving great acclaim for his low-end techno variations. Chicago's Steve Hitchell is a longtime DeepChord cohort and a noted producer in his own right -- most notably under the Soultek moniker. The Coldest Season was produced using nothing but vintage analog equipment: Roland Space Echo, Echoplex, Korg tape delay, vintage signal processors, noise generators, Sequential Circuits 8-bit samplers & numerous analog synthesizers. This project goes back to the heady days of Berlin-based proto dub/techno variations, recorded and produced in Detroit and Chicago. Three of the world's most important techno cities colliding to form a whole that perfectly bridges the gap between The Motor City's emotive arrangements, The Windy City's percussive robustness, and Berlin's life-altering Basic Channel continuum.
CD Reviews
A rich tapestry of wintery landscapes
Steward Willons | Illinois | 07/07/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Echospace is a brilliant collaboration between Rod Modell (of DeepChord), Steven Hitchell (Soultek), and a whole lot of vintage audio gear including 8-bit samplers and all sorts of echo units. "The Coldest Season" is sometimes barely even "music" in the traditional sense, but rather enveloping sound environments - and I mean this in the best possible way. They push the boundaries of ambient techno to a breaking point where subtle groove meets near stasis.
Above all, "The Coldest Season" is incredibly evocative. This is sometimes a problem for electronic music for a variety of reasons. If the music is too digitally rigid, it can lose a sense of humanity, and while this is sometimes the desired effect, some people tend to associate all forms of electronic music with the cold precision of machines. Echospace is one of the most organic-sounding electronic albums I've heard in a long time - some tracks actually sound like they went out to a field, recorded a snowstorm, and put it on the album unchanged. That's not to suggest an overly minimal sound, but rather to emphasize the extent to which they were able to make something that sounds like it came from nature, not a synthesizer.
Each track has a rich ambience that evokes a wintery landscape something like what we hear from Pan Sonic, but not as sparse. The texture is dense, as is typical with dub techno artists. It is the density more than anything that shows the strong ties to the famous Basic Channel sound. Some of the tracks that have a faint beat or pulse in the background are reminiscent of Basic Channel's more abstract music such as "Radiance."
"The Coldest Season" is a great CD and worth checking out if you like any of the following: ambient music, dub techno, electronic music, or adventurous music in general. I'm looking forward to what Echospace does next."
Deep emotive techno
Marc Gustafson | San Diego, CA United States | 09/20/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is techno music, but it is not really dance music in any sense. It is closer to Boards of Canada than Carl Cox. Even if you're familiar with the Modern Love label, this leans more towards ambient than their typical releases. I feel the most similar album would be the beautiful album by Yagya, Rhythm of Snow. In fact, the titles and artwork hint at that type of audio similarity. In another real sense, this album is unlike any other that I've ever heard. At first, you might hear only static washes, then muted rhythms appear out the mass only to be swallowed up or reverberated through space. The album defies the notion of songs altogether because there are no hooks, and it presents a unified vision of a entire season. It is an amount of time that is both long and short, difficult to hold in mind all at once and yet symbolized by one coherent image. This album is clearly the product of artists dedicated to their craft, delivering one of the finest listening experiences possible."
Ambient music can have a beat
E. Willey | Oakland, CA | 01/03/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"one of my favorite cd's from 2007 - just washes over you in waves, taking you to the cold wintery landscape that it's going for."
Headphone Commute Review
Headphone Commute | 03/17/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"On the train I started reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy (author of No Country for Old Men). The Road is a dark, post-apocalyptic story about a nameless man traveling the cold, ash covered landscape, with his son. To drown away the commuters' chatter I read with my headphones on. Today I'm listening to The Coldest Season by Rod Modell (DeepChord) and Steven Hitchell (Soultek) together known as Echospace, releasing this first full length on Modern Love. I brought up The Road, because The Coldest Season couldn't have been a more appropriate soundtrack to the novel. The tracks are full of windy, ambient, white noise, dubbed out minor chords, and minimal techno beats. The only warmest aspect of the album is the sound of vintage analog equipment. The coldness doesn't let up from the fact that all of the tones, static, and field recordings were done in Chicago and Detroit. But the low temperature does not take away from the beautiful experience captured by this instant classic. I immediately listened again and again. Recommended for that Basic Channel sound, and if you like Pole, Vladislav Delay and Monolake. Favorite Track: the 13+ minute Aequinoxium."
Track Listings (9) - Disc #1