Album Info

Steingarten

By Pole

Electronic - 2007

German producer Stefan Betke, who has been recording as Pole since the ‘90s, is a master of armchair-and-headphones techno. His... more

Tracklist

1

Warum

4:57 min
2

Winkelstreben

5:04 min
3

Sylvenstein

5:06 min
4

Schöner Land

3:35 min
5

Mädchen

5:37 min
6

Achterbahn

4:55 min
7

Düsseldorf

4:26 min
8

Jungs

7:11 min
9

Pferd

4:08 min

About Steingarten

German producer Stefan Betke, who has been recording as Pole since the ‘90s, is a master of armchair-and-headphones techno. His music is as lovely and cold as the undulating glass and steel structures contemporary architects love to design. But he also draws from the deep throb of Jamaican dub, and more recently, from American hip-hop, styles that bring swing and sway to his chilly tracks. Steingarten is Pole’s first full-length since 2004's Pole, an album that featured the verbal flow of MC Fat Jon. The more recent album is all instrumental, and the opener, “Warum,” immediately informs the listener that Betke has not forgotten to bring the abstract funk. The cut sports a killer riff with a syncopated hole in its noisy middle interjections that poke at the groove, and a plethora of sonic tidbits. “Acterbahn”’s ticklish hook and web of percussive effects could rock dance clubs populated by sleek and sexy androids. When was the last time you heard a harmonica on an electronica album as you do on “Pferd,” the closer? The track’s sweet end-of the-movie melancholy nicely wraps things up.