Gravity remains Monolake's splendid signpost to techno innovation

Gravity is rooted in techno but incorporates a deliriously rich array of sonics, that now deserves, belatedly, greater recognition than it received in certain quarters in 2001. The new clarity of sound allows us to appreciate the complexity of the basslines and the dub elements allied to the forthright electronica.

With our contemporary awareness of the subsequent evolution of the textures of slow-motion tracks from the likes of the early Dubstep Allstars series (of which Volume 02, mixed by DJ Youngsta, is particularly recommended in this context; later ventures in the sequence travelled down more grimy streets) onwards to Burial and beyond, it is perhaps only now that Gravity can be seen as indicative of a road that maybe could have been taken by those of a more forward-looking techno disposition, but was (it could be propounded) seriously explored by comparatively few until, some years later, by artists such as Deepchord with his splendid Auratones and Functional Designs.

Of course, joining the dots here produces far-from-straight lines, but this Monolake double vinyl offers an insight into the potential, rarely realised, not necessarily of an entirely novel syncretic theology but certainly of a more clearly inter-related set of tribal musical faiths broader than a narrowly-focused techno linearity.

From the outset, on Side A’s “Mobile”, we are aware, partly owing to the clarity of the re-mastering, of the careful layering of sounds and Henke’s work in alternating between the squelching rhythmic effects and the complementary flow (watery imagery is especially appropriate in a critique of the track and of much of the album) of eddies of sound that repay close attention to the balance of sonics. Here, it’s the relative restraint of the beat force that allows the full-dimensionality of the sound to work through, and well beyond, the dancefloor, and provides a contrast to the more industrial rhythmic vigour of “Ice” where, far-sightedly or otherwise, spectral vocals seem to anticipate aspects of incipient dubstep.

“Frost” has more emphatic rhythmic patterns, but the rumbling echoes pushing forwards and then receding compel attention. Chilly, certainly, but far from cold-hearted with its clearly perceptible melody beneath the crystalline, and the track-sequencing is worth noting here as the following “Static” sets up a more equal contest between the consistent driven beat pattern and the background-to-foreground variety of effects, and the balance between bassline judder and the percussive shifts further towards the latter in “Zero Gravity” with some remarkably nuanced interplay between the sonic shards, before a return to the more focused staccato character of “Fragile” concluding Side C.

There’s a beautiful mélange of the aquatic and the aerial in “Aviation”, chirps and whirrs hovering above a gentle, ambient electronica with a steady pulse, insistent but never domineering, evidence of a schema stressing careful, but not over-rigid control of the individual components such that there is, throughout the album, definitely a sense of careful composition yet, nevertheless, a stress on the fluid or organic rather than the diagrammatic. In retrospect, Gravity can be seen as a splendid signpost to techno innovation and variety that could, indeed should, have been followed by many other artists in the immediately following years.