"High Cube is a record you can embrace front to back and finish with the slightest of hope to hear more from the duo in the future."
The electronic underground has never offered as much material for the curious listeners as it does today. What once took a great deal of effort, from accessing an independent record shop or a periodical, to finding those in the know willing to give the inside information on shows and artists, can now be found from the comfort of your laptop and phone.
Despite the unfettered access to DIY sounds from around the world, only a handful of individuals stick it out long term for the love of the game. The economic realities of being a professional musician, coupled with many seeking more stable careers and generally burning out on music, leads to few who remain in the scene for half a decade let alone close to thirty years. Two producers, label curators, and textbook music lifers, Los Angeles’ Brian Foote and Portland, Oregon’s Paul Dickow debut their inaugural recorded collaboration, Foote/Dickow.
Brian Foote produces everything from leftfield house, databank techno, and jungle infused works under the Leech moniker. His curatorial instincts are on display with the excellent Los Angeles label Peak Oil, of which he’s a co-founder and one of the brains (and Brian’s) behind a stellar lineup of shapeshifting abstract minimal and dub techno. In his seemingly inexhaustible schedule, he finds time to be the general manager for Kranky and run PR for likeminded artists as a freelancer.
Among his many deep musical connections, Paul Dickow has released numerous LPs on Peak Oil through his long-running project Strategy. Across his vast discography he shares Foote’s sensibility of experimenting with and synthesising different genres and forms. Since the early 2000s, Dickow’s output has run the gamut from the downtempo ambience of 2004’s ‘Drumsolo’s Delight’, beat heavy dance music on 2012’s ‘Boxy Music’, and dubbed out electronica on 2023’s ‘Graffiti in Space’.
Their debut collaboration, ‘High Cube’, was produced with both artists in the same room, a defined set of equipment and time, and an ethos to not obsess over the results and go with the flow. The LP sounds just as you’d expect while presenting sounds wholly unique to their respective catalogs: effortlessly groovy, loose, and laid back tracks that meld elements of techno, ambient, and experimental electronica. With their decades of friendship and in sync musical sensibilities, it’s no surprise that the duo can easily get into audio lockstep and produce an album’s worth of expertly crafted material so quickly.
The figurative and chronological centrepieces of ‘High Cube’ can be found when you tune in to “A Dragon’s Treasure is its Soul” and “Yonaguni”. The former takes crunchy percussive slaps and frizzy synth washes on a mind-altering loop that walks the line between clubby rhythms and disjointed chill room aesthetics. Percussion leads the charge on the latter, with an even deeper sense of fuzzy feelings treating your ears to an etch-a-sketch of sounds and beats. Samples buzz in and out, time signatures shift, and the ground moves beneath your feet. It’s like a kaleidoscope bursting from its container, the vibrant colours running and eventually subsuming you into its mesmeric, melting patterns.
Whether or not you’re tuned into the backstory of ‘High Cube’ and its creators, there’s an undeniable hang out feel to the record. It’s neither ambient nor techno, which both creators can craft with ease. The record brims with a sonic sensibility that’s bright, dense, and inviting from the get go. ‘High Cube’ is a record you can embrace front to back and finish with the slightest of hope to hear more from the duo in the future. If not, though, the album can stand alone as a brilliant display of a new side to each producer. There’s plenty to digest on what’s sure to be a favorite for fans of underground electronica.
High Cube is out now via Geographic North. Buy a vinyl copy from Inverted Audio Record Store.
TRACKLIST
1. Volcano Snail
2. Underwater Welder
3. A Dragon’s Treasure is its Soul
4. Yonaguni
5. Ofid+wor
6. Mother of Thousands