- The French producer continues to drift away from peak time with an EP of beautiful and intricate ambient techno.
- David Letellier, AKA Kangding Ray, came to techno slightly later in life. He started out as a Raster-Noton disciple who captured everything the label did well—think polished sound design with strange drum programming, almost techno but not quite. A decade into his career his music changed tack, becoming synonymous with the precise, hi-fi techno championed by labels like Stroboscopic Artefacts and Figure in the mid-10s (both of which have released his records). 2022's ULTRACHROMA was his full circle moment. It was still a techno record, but it was more freeform, filled with vintage IDM and ambient motifs. Letellier's latest 12-inch, Polar, returns to his old stomping ground of slower tempos as he leans further into his experimental side.
The shimmering chords that start "Solid State Rain" could have been lifted straight from Letellier's older work. But he doesn't let it slip into home-listening mode, instead unleashing ferocious sub-bass that crashes through the track. He pulls a similar trick on "Asymmetric Lifeform," with a dubby delay that causes the synths to drip like ice stalactites over the slowly forming breakbeat. A track like this—or the lattice-like percussion on "Four Intertwined Spirals"—is ambient techno of the purest vintage, the sort of stuff you might have heard on an Astralwerks release circa '95, when the kick drums bled into the chillout room.
These tunes are elegant contrasts between the experimental and the functional. Polar's title track is a proper banger, but even here the central arpeggio is so graceful it sounds weightless above the mechanical crunch of the drums. Lettelier's 12-inches have tended to focus on straight-up techno, but Polar is something else. Taken together, the record is the work of a producer who isn't afraid to revisit the past with a fresh set of eyes, making his techno softer, and his ambient harder.
Lista de títulos01. Four Intertwined Spirals
02. Asymmetic Lifeform
03. Polar
04. Solid State Rain