Martin Schulte: Depth of Soul

Martin Schulte
Depth of Soul
Lantern
2009-03-17

Looped sound collages and creeping synths are peppered with empty factory clacks on Depth of Soul, an outing from Russian producer Martin Schulte that belongs filed under dub techno and should ensure a place for him amid the usual crowd’s output. The textural makeup of Depth‘s pieces is undeniably a motionless beast. “Mutation” is built around a singular note that’s for the most part merely folded into different tones — it doesn’t so much as unravel as it grows wider toward its close. At seven and a half minutes, the track would probably feel overlong if not for its ominously shifting percussive bed, infrequent backward rolls and an eventual dissonant pairing of what’s been here and what’s been festering. All this welcomes a mischievous soundtracking endeavor called “Supper”, where silverware clinks and chattering people drop ice into glasses during one of the more aurally satisfying — if abrasive — entries here. When Schulte breaks up the segments that threaten to linger with these adventurous patches of room ambience, the often set-friendly Depth of Soul bears the mark of a producer rattling some long-settled bones.

RATING 6 / 10