Dubstep is in, people. On the back of universal plaudits showered upon Burial’ exploration of the genre in Untrue, its influence has become substantially more noticeable. Although Danish artist Jens Berents Christiansen – better known as Rumpistol – has been creating music for the majority of this millennium, an excavation of dubstep is undertaken in the ambient minimalism of his impressive third record, Dynamo, his first since 2005’s Mere Rum, released through his own label Rump Recordings.
What makes a record like Dynamo such a beguiling listen is that it refuses to narrow its focus. Sure, dubstep is an overt touchstone, particularly on tracks like “Analog’ and the pogo-bounce of opener “Transit’, but Rumpistol’ musical palette consists of so many more colours. Take “Analog’ for instance: ambient electronica and even reggae are subtly incorporated into eroded, androgenous vocals and skittering shards of rhythm. “Mobile’ is indebted to the classic glitch pioneers; its static beat is contorted and broken, while other synthetic sounds stutter, stop and start. It’s music that epitomises controlled chaos.
While most of the output off Dynamo takes its aesthetic cues from the IDM and downtempo patois, there are welcome moments of extroversion and musical fortitude. “Beito’ grumbles courtesy of some hard-edged beats and injections of thick, distorted samples into copper-coloured percussion and the faint sound of strings. The amorphous “Rehux’ delves into early Autechre territory, courtesy of shuddering rhythms, myriad synthesiser lines that bounce off imaginary walls and something that vaguely sounds like tubular bells. Perhaps there’ a love affair with the music of Mike Oxfield buried beneath the cracked beats and insistent waves of keyboards?
Although Dynamo is dense, it’s never overbearing. It’s minimal without being vacuous, ambient without being negligible. With a deft electronica hand and dubstep as the thread, Rumpistol weaves an intelligent musical patchwork.
Dom Alessio
