Browse by Artist: DEADBEAT

Artist:	DEADBEAT
Title:	Wild Life Documentaries
Label:	SCAPE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	SCAPE 015CD

"Scott Montheit, aka Deadbeat, has been an inner circle part of Montreals (Canada) very lively and inspiring new electronic music scene since the beginning. His first records were put out by Hautec and Revolver from 1998. He has longstanding artistic and friendly relations to Akufen, Jeff Milligan and the Mutek festival. His scape debut album 'wild like documentaries' delves deep into the heritage of Dub: the entire idiomatic richesse, the aural trade marks, the delays, the white noise, the tape echo, all the compressions and manipulations the history of dub has produced have found their place in his work, were used, re-interpreted, re-invented and transferred into the here and now. Technical finesse is never pushed to the forefront, though, because Deadbeat relies much more on the traditional roots elements of classic dub, their timeless soul and very own nostalgia. On Wild Life Documentaries sound experimentation joins the courage for direct, emotional statements. Deadbeat blends everything into a dub epic, a suite of nevertheless autonomous tracks, carried by a relaxed, organic warmth, the soul inherent in all true dub music."

Artist:	DEADBEAT
Title:	Something Borrowed, Something Blue
Label:	SCAPE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	SCAPE 021CD

"Deadbeat returns to Scape with the sequel to 2002's Wild Life Documentaries, a chronicle of the nine months leading up to his marriage in June 2003, entitled Something Borrowed, Something Blue. Continuing to explore dub's far-reaching root system, this sequel sees Deadbeat push the boundaries of his frame of reference to further extremes at both ends of the spectrum. While the legacy of Kingston's dub proper and Berlin's techno hybrids are still audible, the album's crunchier moments adopt a more aggressive version of the dub recipe, with echos of perhaps Tackhead or African Head Charge bouncing around some far corner of the reverb tank. The cinematic format of Wild Life Documentaries is also taken to new heights here, with track boundaries becoming increasingly blurred, thoughts left to unfurl in slow motion, and sounds disappearing and reappearing like characters in an ever thickening plot...or perhaps forgotten and frantically remembered entries on an ever-growing wedding reception 'To do' list. As one might expect from a document of such an intense time in a person's life, Something Borrowed, Something Blue is an emotional landscape of widely varying elevation. 'A Brief Explanation' begins the journey by introducing us to a new friend, a cricket, who perhaps was caught in the hard drive spindle at the completion of the last chapter. Like all good friends, he remains for the duration of the journey. 'Head Over Heels' provides the warmth and comfort of a crackling fireplace on a cold winter night, set to a jangling ukelele melody augmented with piano shards and a round, insistent kick. 'White Out' captures the raging blizzard just outside the door: icy chords and a militant dancehall stomp build to a climax before being shattered and reconfigured into triplicate techno shrapnel. 'Requiem' provides an excellent reference for testing the bass response of even the most well-equipped sound system. Drums and bass are submerged to the furthest depths of the dub sea, with shimmering chords burbling to the surface throughout. 'Steady as a Rock' is perhaps the album's most deliberate nod to the Jamaican kings, with a roaring organ and fractured guitar line pulled along by a chugging engine of drums and bass. 'Fixed Elections' sees Deadbeat voice his political frustrations with a slippery Detroit synth line and a tear-jerking reggae chorus. 'A Joyful Noise Part 1' weaves digital-synth textures and heavily processed field recordings around a hopeful organ and rolling bassline. 'Part 2' sees the same sources deconstructed and reassembled to form a lullaby of static and melodic noise. On 'Quitting Time' Deadbeat bashes out a colossal kick-snare pattern on his bath tub in a mournful ode to the exhaustion we've all felt after a hard day's work. Our journey ends with 'Portable Memory (The Final Cut)', a cloud of digital debris that rises to a distorted crescendo before dissipating into the final sustained chord and the familiar chatter of our friend the cricket, bringing things, as is so often the case, full circle."

Artist:	DEADBEAT
Title:	Preliminary Findings
Label:	SCAPE (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$8.50
Catalog #:	SCAPE 026EP

"Where does techno end, and dub begin? Since the late '90s, Deadbeat has explored both sides of the equation, swinging his pendulum between the two genres on recordings for labels like Cynosure, Revolver, and ~scape. Following in the wake of dub-techno pioneers like Pole, Deadbeat has explored half-speed exercises in sonar ping and pooling delay, where every bass drop explodes like a depth charge in unfathomably pressurized waters. And as one half of the hillbilly-techno duo Crackhaus, influenced by hyperkinetic masters like Matthew Herbert and Akufen, Monteith has dug his fingers into every angular crevasse of dance music's splintery, up-tempo jig. The two sides come together on his new EP, Preliminary Finding. 'Abu Ghraib (Rage Mix)' sands down Chicago house's jagged, jacking swing until every surface is smooth. Beneath its buffered skin, jazzy keyboards flare, dueling bass lines knit a new low-end DNA, and spinning dubwise squeals scrape the horizon like a lighthouse beam. If that makes you dizzy, just listen for the sample of a North American radio announcer spewing right-wing filth in the introduction to 'Abu Ghraib (Tension Dub)'. There's rage here, but it lurks just below the glassy, buffered surface of a track that seems to float in space, uploading information from a distant island soundclash. Its only tether is a spooling acid-rock guitar line loosely linked to a mothership set adrift for eternity. Mike Shannon's remix of 'Texas Tea' brings things back to Montreal, where snow-crusted boots stomp on iron steps and the horizon glows with a peculiar northern light. An emissary of a global techno community, Shannon knows what it takes to kick-start a dance floor, and his skipping, rolled-shouldered mix carries the motion forward from an easy ambient breathing exercise to a furious workout of drums and battered bells; you can feel the energy, as mercurial as the northern lights, prickling on your skin."

Artist:	DEADBEAT
Title:	New World Observer
Label:	SCAPE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	SCAPE 027CD

Third Album for scape by the legendary Deadbeat. The open seas -- the pirates' domain -- have long been a site of resistance. And if reggae, one of the world's great resistance genres, is an island ghetto music, dub is ocean song, brimming with tidal swells and pinging with the secret language of sonar. These freedoms are turned loose in the music of Deadbeat, aka Montreal's Scott Monteith. Equally influenced by German techno, dub reggae, and the digital dub of his mentor Pole, Deadbeat plumbs the unfathomable aquatic mass of the deep blue in his bottom-dredging bass lines, coral-clacking clicks, and untethered melodies. Deadbeat's third album for Scape, New World Observer, is his most accomplished attempt yet to fuse dub, techno, and ambient music into a complex, undulating form. It would be silly to call this a 'political' album, but the record's influences demonstrate how the tenor of the times filters into music that might at first listen be deemed a product for leisure consumption. If you listen closely to the introduction of "Abu Ghraib," you'll hear the appalling rhetoric of a certain North American right-wing radio announcer slowed to a brainnumbing crawl. "I don't know how any artist in any discipline who has been reading the paper or watching the news over the last year could not have countless atrocities penetrate their work," says Monteith. His response isn't intended to define as political such 'abstract' electronic music, but by including such sources -- as well as the distraught Palestinian woman whose voice ushers in"'O Little Town of Bethlehe"' --Monteith refutes the idea that electronic music (or pop music, call it what you will) exists in a vacuum. If Deadbeat's slow-burning anger differentiates New World Observer from his earlier projects, the other distinguishing factor here is the presence of vocals. Several tracks benefit from the contributions of Montreal vocalist Athesia, a singer with a background in house, bossa nova, and jazz. "I treated the vocal sources as I would any other element," says Monteith, "and it was a very long, baby-steps journey for me -- unlike anything else I've ever tackled." The album lays bare that journey, just as each individual track shines forth a sea-borne beacon indicating further potentialities, further directions. Pull out your compass and survey the world from Deadbeat's perspective.

Artist:	DEADBEAT
Title:	Journeyman's Annual
Label:	SCAPE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	SCAPE 046CD

This is Montreal-based Deadbeat aka Scott Monteith's fourth full-length release on the ~scape label. Since the release of his previous outing, New World Observer in March 2005, Monteith has spent the vast majority of his time on the road, honing his skills as a master craftsman of genre defying electronic dance music. Though fans of Monteith's previous ~scape full lengths might find it difficult to envision his music as the soundtrack to a rollicking dance floor, Journeyman's Annual is the first to showcase an updated version of the Deadbeat sound that has quietly been overtaking his more meditative work over the last year and-a-half. This is modern bass music of an entirely unique sort, crafted with the intention of moving asses as much as stimulating minds. Easily the closest stylistically to his previous work for ~scape, the opening two tracks employ minimal techno's careful ruminations on endlessly repeating groove structures, while sitting comfortably in dubstep's doom-filled, 140 bpm pocket. For the album opener, Monteith enlists the aid of violinist and fellow Montrealer Sophie Trudeau (ex-GY!BE, A Silver Mount Zion) to craft what is potentially the darkest song in his entire catalog. "Melbourne Round Midnight" combines a lurching funeral organ line with vaporous horns and a thunderous one note bass drop to create a chugging dub monster. Along with Trudeau's string arrangements, Monteith also calls upon vocalists to expand the album's sonic palette. This record also features Bristol-based Bubbz, who spits a fiery tale on "Refund Me." "Deep In Country" marks the triumphant return of Moral Undulations, whose bad man vocal stylings provide a rhythmic assault. "Gimme A Little Slack" features Montreal's DJ Jah Cutta, and the dynamic duo craft a piece of pure heavyweight bashment, filled with searing percussion, impossibly low bass, and a vocal hook that will stay in your head for days. Finally, as a bonus to this already fine set, this record includes Deadbeat's much sought-after remix of Saul Williams' "Black Stacey" from 2005. Previously only available on an incredibly rare promo-only 12", the track has been a trademark finisher of Deadbeat live sets and has driven the floor into a frenzy each and every time. Easily his most diverse album to date, Journeyman's Annual is a far reaching account of new creative connections and rhythmic inspirations drawn from the four corners of the globe, and a spectacular sign of things to come from one of electronic music's premier low-end prophets.

Artist:	DEADBEAT
Title:	Versionist Carmot
Label:	WAGON REPAIR (CANADA)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	WAG 039EP

This is Deadbeat's second Wagon Repair release in quick succession. Versionist Carmot blends dubstep and house in a pulsating techno workout. "Boil" progresses sharply with off-beat rhythmic melody and probing percussion. "Freeze" soothes with icy-cool looped dub guitar and reverberating percussion. "Evaporate" is a deeper house number, with cymbals riding high alongside sampled machinery and a throbbing synth melody. "Incinerate" closes procedures with a combustive climax -- a fiery mix of percussion and bubbling melody.

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