dubwize
gabriel le mar is a veteran in electronic music with over 25 album productions on his belt. synonymously his name stands for a decade of deep dub techno and consequently pushing tracks for intense nights on the floor. in this process the productive artist likes to integrate himself in different artistic constellations with project pseudonyms such as subsonic park, aural float or justin sequence. next to his many music projects gabriel also works with aural float (alex azary, pascal f.e.o.s. and gabriel le mar) on audiovisual concepts: as a team they did the artistic supervision of spacenight, a prototype of an integral tv-concept, utilizing spectacular pictures and visionary soundscapes which became a landmark success on german television and was highly acclaimed on an international level and remains a synonyme for chillout until today.
on his brandnew album "dubwize" le mar offers 8 new tracks which are tailored for the dub inspired clubber, combining different playful approaches of dubwith the functionality and stringency of techhouse music, without sounding like another basic channel epigone, but rather to focus on an own approach with different methods and results. precisely this means that the length of an album context is used to tell a story: agile tracks like the opening "dubster" mixes and the more minimal pounding "love dub" alternate with spheric minimal groovers like "seasonal dub" and "time for everything". bridges are built by more minimal functional grooves like "minitex" or "nova bluez" which give an opportunity to exhale. a perfect on-the-point production, "dubwize" sounds refreshingly variable and discrete, caused by an uncoerced approach in the studio and conveyed by the input received by the creative exchange processes with his project partners and last but not least, the musical socialization which encompasses rich influences from king tubby to andy stott is definitely a factor which helps gabriel to stay refreshingly flexible.
reviews
eikman | germany | 03/2009
Gabriel le Mar sollte man eigentlich nicht mehr weiter beschreiben müssen. Seit Mitte der 90er Jahre hat er mit einem guten Dutzend Projekten und dubbigen Soundscapes auf sich aufmerksam gemacht, und er hat gerade zusammen mit Alex Azary als Aural Float und aktuell Subsonic Park maßgeblich den Sound von Elektrolux geprägt. Inzwischen ist er bei Thinner angekommen, und spätestens mit diesem Release, sollten auch die letzten Kritiker der Entscheidung des Labels, zukünftig auf bezahlte Downloads zu setzen, verstummen.
Mit Dubwize gibt Gabriel le Mar nämlich nicht nur ein neues Lebenszeichen von sich, sondern liefert eines der besten Dubhouse und Dubtechno Alben seit langem ab, und wie immer ist es die richtige Mischung, die den Unterschied macht. Neben technoideren, treibenderen Tracks wie Love Dub oder Seasonal Dub, die mich teilweise an die frühen SCSI-9 Produktionen auf Force Tracks erinnern, ohne dadurch ihren Dub-Charakter vermissen zu lassen, gibt es ebenso ruhigere, fließende Latenight-Grooves (Dubster), die mit einer gesunden Portion World-Dub und wohlplatzierten Vocals wie bei Time for Everything auch aus der Feder eines Brendon Moeller aka Beat Pharmacy stammen könnten, der ja mit seinem Album schon letztes Jahr die Wände unseres non-existenten Office gerockt hat. Aller Vergleiche zum Trotz, strotzt Dubwize vor Tanzbarkeit, die immer wieder durch unscheinbare, aber nicht minder wirkungsvolle Tracks wie Funkstern oder Nova Bluez zurückgeholt wird, und dadurch einfach einen ungemein homogenen Flow inne hat, der zum Schluss mit Motorace und einer Beatless Version von Dubster doch noch in die eher “klassischen” Dubsphären eintaucht. Insgesamt gibt es bei den acht Tracks keinen Filler; Le Mars Gespür für fließende Kompositionen und das richtige Ohr für die Tanzfläche machen Dubwize zu einem idealen Begleiter, um sich entweder langsam für den Abend einzugrooven, oder aber mit den ersten Sonnenstrahlen einzuschlafen.
Für Thinner ist Gabriel le Mars Album der Beweis, dass man auch weiterhin vor allem um eines bemüht ist: Qualitativ hochwertige Musik anzubieten. Und selbst Skeptiker des Modells sollten dieser Platte eine Chance geben, denn sie ist jeden Cent und jedes heruntergeladene Byte wert.
thelastbeat
click here for more reviews
sven hartmüller | germany | 03/2009
Gabriel Le Mar gehört zu den Ursteinen elektronischer Musik im Rhein Main Gebiet. Unter seinen verschiedenen Konstellationen hat er bereits satte 25 Alben veröffentlicht – hier nun sein neustes Werk auf Thinner, welches zur Speerspitze jener welcher gehört. Wie unschwer am Titel zu erkennen ist, geht es hauptsächlich um dubbigen Sound, welcher in den letzten Jahren einen wahren Höhenflug erleben durfte. Von Ambient Dub bis Dub Techno wird auf Dubwize alles geboten und man merkt schon beim ersten durchskippen, daß Gabriel sein Handwerk versteht. Für Freunde von Basic Channel, Deepchord usw. eine absolute Bereicherung. Jetzt schon freuen darf man sich auf die Neuinterpretationen des Albums durch Marko Fürstenberg, Max Cavalerra oder auch Chris Wood.
subculture
Maurizio Pustianaz | canada | 03/2009
With a decade of activity and twenty albums on his shoulders, Gabriel Le Mar is releasing on the Thinner net label his latest one titled DUBWIZE. Active also as Subsonic Park, Aural Float, Justin Sequence and working with Aural Float (Alex Azary, Pascal F.E.O.S. and Gabriel Le Mar) on audiovisual concepts, Gabriel with DUBWIZE creates a wave of fluctuating sounds in balance from dub and house with a minimal approach to the musical structure. The tracks are long suites (most of them are 8 minutes long) where the variety of sounds isn′t the main thing as my sensation is that Gabriel focused his efforts into creating tunes where the sound grow constantly and like a magma tend to trap the listener into its slow movement. Personally I′m more into techno/electro but I appreciated the fluctuating feeling I felt once I eased myself and closed my eyes...
Chain D.L.K.
tobias fischer | germany | 03/2009
You wouldn′t expect it from an artist with a decade of experience and a 25-entry discography to his credit, but humility and modesty are Gabriel le Mar′s preferred character traits. After all these years spent in the studio and on the road, his unfettered enthusiasm still effectively eradicates even the most tender appendage of airs and graces – this man is a living and breathing musician, not a sterile star. The story of „Dubwize“, too, is rather one of mutual respect than a hostile takeover: Despite his obvious and undisputed credentials, he was excited to be pointed in the direction of online label Thinner by his friend Max Kavalero, as eager as a schoolboy on his first slowdance upon downloading all but their entire back catalogue and as happy as a debutant when the respected company accepted his demo for publication.
It′s unlikely, however, that he will have had to do all that much convincing. Not only does the album fit the label profile of deep, dreamy Dubhouse like a glove, its clever sequencing and epically arced architecture mark it as more than just another collection of excuisitely produced but essentially unrelated single cuts. In the 90s, Le Mar was cast as artistic director of „Space Night“, a TV feature based on astronomical images and floating soundscapes which would keep students like myself awake for much too long upon returning home from already far too long nights at the pubs and clubs of Frankfurt, so he obviously knows how to build long, sustained musical dramaturgies – the series, just as an aside, has probably done more for widespread interest in and, more importantly, respect for electronic music than any other format in Germany.
This tension arch and sense of weightless wideness has now trickled into the polished arrangements of „Dubwize“ while being combined with the physical pulse of four to the floor kicks and seductive synth pads. Single chords will be repeated for a full eight minutes, samples Saxophones will blow short, almost ephemeral melodies, grooves will pound and prod the ear with gentle force and deep, sonorous bass lines will move as if in a trance and almost independent of the general flow of the music. Collaborations with MCs like Markie J, Jah Seco or Yah Meek are seamlessly integrated into the mix, as their vocals are snippeted into short, slogan-esque samples, which no longer aim to build any kind of narrative or coherent rap flow.
The main tranformational action of couse takes place in the recognisable Dub stabs, but their continuous metrum never forces itself upon the listener nor does it represent the only element worth paying attention to. Even though some of his pieces develop the thematic pull of songs, le Mar places great importance on weaving a web of fully integrated textures composed of a myriad of micromotives all working towards creating an irresistible subcutaneous flow. On „Love Dub“, possibly the album′s quintessential track, this web pulsates and pushes, stomps, romps and marches forward with a relentless energy, while still providing for enough head space to allow the listener′s fantasy input of its own.
„Dubwize“ is definitely a genre-typical and smooth work (unless one would want to count the rhythmic use of car engines on „Motorace“ as a tentative stab at experimentation), but it never comes across as too tasteful to leave a lasting impression. Every single piece here comes equipped with that one special hook that will keep you glued to your seat or on the dancefloor just when you thought you′d heard it all. And the closing beat-less remix of „Dubster“ points towards a fascinating proposition for the future: The approximation of clicks and cuts from the perspective of House. As modest and humble as le Mar may be, it is a finale which should make him proud just a little at least.
tokafi
laurent diouf | france | 04/2009
En signant ce nouvel album sur le fameux net-label Thinner, Gabriel Le Mar initie une nouvelle étape pour cette structure puisque le téléchargement est, chose inhabituelle, payant sur Beatport ou spécifiquement à l′unité sur Zero.inch.com. Une plateforme de premier ordre en ce qui concerne les "musiques libres et inventives" pour reprendre une formule bien connue. Des qualificatifs que l′on applique sans hésiter au dub trancey de Gabriel Le Mar, expert en la matière depuis des lustres. On rappellera simplement les multiples projets qu′il mène en parallèle avec Alex Azary par exemple : Aural Float, Saafi Brothers, Subsonic Park, etc. Ici, il ne se départit pas de sa "ligne claire", lumineuse et groovy. "Dubster", donne le ton avec son groove élastique et ses touches harmoniques. Un peu plus loin, "Seasonal dub" semble plus chaud et coloré. Quelques "featurings" discrets apportent un contre-point ragga/roots sur une rythmique plus tek ("Love dub"). Et le tracklisting se boucle sur un remix un peu plus "space" du premier morceau.
musiques et cultures digitales
alex kourelis | usa | 05/2009
In a vein of music as pigeonholed as electronic music, Gabriel Le Mar keeps your interest, not with ethereal ambience or hard driving beats, but with a mindful eye on detail. Hailing from Frankfurt, Germany, Le Mar brings us a fine selection of dub techno entitled Dubwize from the German label, Thinner. From the onset, this album gives you rising organ sounds with minimal percussion on the single “Dubster” (also released with a video). An unobtrusive yet hypnotic and mesmerizing selection of cuts follow, each resonating with style and mastery. While many artists within this genre tend to focus on the next dance floor filling track, Le Mar’s toolbox seems more oriented on the vibe that is consistent in style. While listening to Dubwize, I reflected many times on how well this album’s tracks complement each other. The listener moves from the brilliant opener into a dub category with “Nova Bluez” and settles in with “Funkstern”; a decidedly more percussive affair. Further within the album, “Love Dub” and “Motorace” up the tempo slightly, ringing true of the Thinner style that can be attributed to the majority of their artists. Dubwize is fantastic for an easy afternoon listen or equally as fantastic for the more fervent dub fans. Dubwize is an album which promises to grow on the listener with each play. Indeed, I found myself neglecting my own iTunes library over time with this gem of an addition to my heavy rotation. Songs such as “Seasonal Dub” (featuring MC Markie J) in particular, brought me back over and over as I settled into the groove. While many may question the necessity of so many near-eight-minute tracks (of the 9 tracks on Dubwize, 8 of them top seven minutes), for me, it marked the style of the album as more of a journey and it stands better for it.
auxiliary magazine
|
|
what's related
other releases by gabriel le mar
|
