Dudley Strangeways: Soul Five

This guy is onto something. Dudley Strangeways is a name right out of a spy novel and also some of the best bits of dubby underground techno being made right now.

After a bone-grinding EP on Josh Wink’s label (Crack The Whip), Strangeways shows his dynamic range with Soul Five, the gorgeous vinyl-only release from soul.on records.

Part a series called “Seven Souls,” Strangeways’ contribution is a landmark: four tracks of techno that evoke warm but disorienting landscapes, a wilderness without bottom. “Undertone” captures this perfectly. I’ve been seeing more and more people from the world of danceable techno escape into a kind of beatless ambient haze: this is proof positive that one can anchor music with a steady beat but still soar into the heavens. Novio Dub Tribe (Roger Gerressen and Sinan Alakus) remix “Undertone” with an edgy anxiety; it’s well enough conceived and executed that it sounds like an extension and exploration of the original.

The dubby “Call Who” is another remarkable tone poem, rounding out side B with the more intimate “Terrance.”