TOMMI BASS: Gamma (Rednetic Recordings)

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Posted on Aug 26th 2009 12:32 am

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Tommi Bass: Gamma

TOMMI BASS
Gamma
RN022
Rednetic Recordings 2009
08 Tracks. 61mins45secs

Icon: arrow CD: Smallfish Download: Amazon UK | Amazon US | iTunes

It has been three years since London-born Tommi Bass dropped his first bombshell on Rednetic. The album, Tommi Lab Vol. 1, was followed by a second volume, released as a digital format on Rednetic’s sister net label Redose in 2007. Since, he has moved lock, stock and barrels to Berlin and spent time developing a blend of minimal techno much more in tune with the German capital than with its British counterpart.

Marking Tommi Bass’s return to Rednetic after a stint on Minimal People, Gamma showcases a much sharper and focussed sound than on his previous outings for the label, in line with his recent Purple Phaaze and Alfa Series releases. Occasionally reminiscent of labels such as Perlon or M-nus, the music collected on Gamma freely feeds from Berlin’s infamous minimal techno, injecting hefty linear beats and meaty bass-lines into rarefied soundscapes, where melodic themes struggle to find enough air to breathe, let alone develop. Everything on this album is geared up for the dance floor, from the swooping bass pulses of Gamma_1 and the pneumatic driving beat of Gamma_6 to the crawling dub-ridden Gamma_4 and the radiating filtered voice that appears to bounce off every beat on Gamma_7. Tommi Bass creates here an extremely linear and consistent set, each track dominated by a pounding bass/drums combo, but it is easy to miss the finer details that give each of them its individual slant. On Gamma_3 for instance, he adds a notion of decay by weaving crackles into his beat, and a sinister industrial undertone to the latter part of Gamma_5, while out-of-sync percussions threaten to destabilise Gamma_4. Gamma_6 in particular seems to harbour an extensive microscopic world under its rhythmic skeleton, fuelled by constant injections of noises which are then drowned in strong dub currents.

All the way through, Tommi Bass alternates between resolutely harsh and coarse techno forms and more rounded house grooves, but he still manages to keep the momentum going throughout the whole record. Gamma is a record with many more facets than it originally lets on, making it as much a record designed for the brain as it is for the feet.

4/5

Icon: arrow Tommi Bass (MySpace) | Rednetic Recordings
Icon: arrow CD: Smallfish Download: Amazon UK | Amazon US | iTunes

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