Unusual Signals

Quantec isn't a new name on the international techno scene, but this is his debut full-length release. And those who love their beats deep, ambient, and dubwise will be thrilled with this spare and thoughtful record, which takes minimalism in a different direction than one might expect. Quantec's textures are fairly rich and varied, but the melodic fragments and rhythmic components from which he builds his compositions are minimal in the extreme — sometimes more than they really should be. "Amanita Muscaria" opens the program with a promising ambience at first, but it soon becomes apparent that the eight measures you hear at the very beginning are not going to be substantially different from the eight bars you'll hear throughout the remainder of the track's seven-and-a-half minutes. "Deliberate" is similarly minimal, but somehow warmer and more involving; on "Unusual Signals/Reversion," however, the beat starts to swing in an almost bluesy way, while dubby echoes and waves of white noise ebb and flow. "Iboga" is dark and formless, but builds itself up in a strangely intriguing way from multiple layers of gray sound with a ticking hi hat threaded through them. "Yage " and "Panaleous" are both nicely chugging dubwise numbers that lead into several CD-only bonus tracks. Overall, this is a very good effort, if not a consistently brilliant one.