DJ Richard, co-founder of the New Yorker label White Materials, has trustfully turned to Dial in order release his debut »Grind«. Despite him having found the inspiration for his music at the coast of his home state Rhode Island, the tracks encouraged by the deserted island spots perfectly match the melancholy attitude of the label from Hamburg. With DJ Richard, melodies are limited to the smallest and most repetitive fragments, to long drawn-out or insistingly hammering notes, while his beats are rattling along rudimentarily. Supposedly, the ocean has played a big role for making this record, and the way that DJ Richard loops his elements automatically makes us think of waves washing against the shore. One sound turns into the next one, and still, form and rhythm remain almost the same, only varied by tiny deviations, the same way that no two waves are identical. That’s when the – rather static – drones set in, offering the listener a dryer alternative to the coherently bassy and reverberating gloom-techno of recent times. And despite its rather dim atmosphere, this club music sketch sounds more longing than pessimistic. Maybe it’s because DJ Richard knows how to place even the most spare gesture right on the spot, thereby keeping up the suspense. »Screes of Grey Craig« is one of the more outstanding tracks, changing back and forth between rainy impressionism and restricted flashings of euphoria – so good that it was even praised by the adventurous New Yorker fashion label Eckhaus Latta.
Grind
