- There are few partnerships in dub techno as enticing as DeepChord and Fluxion. One is the unquestionable American ambassador for the style, the other a Greek artist who released his first records on Chain Reaction. Rod Modell and Konstantinos Soublis's new project, Transformations, goes back to a series of improvised jam sessions in 2014. They debuted their collaboration last December in San Francisco with a set of "dyed-in-the-wool" dub techno, and the first release carries that spirit of improvisation, finding the two heads deep in a meditative zone.
Accumulate starts mid-stride with a housey skip. Percussive noises ping-pong between the stereo spectrum as if caught in a slipstream, while the synths are layered meticulously, each strand made of shimmering gossamer. It hums along nicely, building momentum until it fades out and you flip the vinyl over. Instead of continuing where it left off, "Accumulate (Part 2)" sounds like it starts from a random part in the same session, then cruises along for another 11 minutes. There are moments of beauty on Accumulate, with a production quality that lives up to this calibre of collaboration. Live, Transformations is meant to create an "improvisational sound environment" through long-form composition. But the project is missing something in EP form.
TracklistA Accumulate (Part 1)
B Accumulate (Part 2)