- Elegant dub techno with elements of drone and ambient.
- Stephan Laubner can turn the smallest of sounds into something monumental. Just take "Silent State," a 2010 club anthem that was a little more than a drum pattern and a whisper of a melody. Not all of his records have harnessed that magic, but Om Transmission, the first release on a new label called om:nia, certainly does. Its three tracks, all long and meditative, stand tall in Laubner's catalogue.
It helps that Om Transmission sidesteps Laubner's typically lo-fi approach. "Still Searching" is unusually approachable, polishing its dubbed-out thump with bright synth melodies and billowy delay effects, qualities that are boosted on "Things Deep." Each percolating chord on "Things Deep" tickles your ear in different places as they pan across the stereo spectrum. It might get stale if Laubner wasn't so good at injecting subtle variation into such lengthy, stripped-down tracks. "Untitled Dubscape" dives into the producer's love of ambient and drone. Over 17 minutes, it evolves from drone into inky dub techno that, as it rattles and hums, turns into something transportive. It's one of Laubner's most beautiful works yet.
TracklistA1 Still Searching
A2 Things Deep
B1 Untitled Dubscape