Jeremy P. Caulfield & Exercise One - 10 Year Tango

Artist: Jeremy P. Caulfield & Exercise One

Title: 10 Year Tango

Label: Dumb-Unit Records

Catalog #: DU057

Genre: Techno

Release Date: June 14, 2010

Rating: 7.5

With over 50 releases and 10 years in business, Toronto’s Dumb-Unit has edged its way into the ultra-saturated modern techno market. Headed up by enthusiastic producer Jeremy P. Caulfield, Dumb-Unit has kept afloat by keeping an ear out for the freshest producers coming out such as Falko Brocksieper and Adam Marshall and by adding a certain rock-style gravity to their releases. Upon moving the offices to Berlin in 2003, Caulfield linked up with Ingo Gansera of Exercise One and the results have exceeded expectations. To celebrate their ongoing operations, Caulfield and Exercise One have collaborated to create the 10 Year Tango EP. The EP follows a sort of mirror format in which the two remix each other’s tracks, included are the originals for good measure.

Caulfield’s “Hush” is a sweltering drone capped off by an ominous and disoriented sample, striking clarity at moments, but at times, verging on madness. Caulfield performed such an effective treatment on the reverb that it gives off the atmosphere of a deep, dark cavern, sticky, humid, and flooded with bats. Exercise One’s remix still uses the delicate reverb, but the central motif is more of a Kraftwerkian, autobahn experience. Exercise One uses heavenly droplets to accentuate a bass drop that only further leads into a brave push for might. The mix gracefully transitions from thoughtful IDM to hi-hat fodder and back again, taking several unexpected turns along the way.

Exercise One’s “Narrating” is an enigmatically sparse track that can trace its roots back to well thought out minimalism. The delay leaves the small insect legs of the melody falling over itself, causing a fit of panic and bedlam. With every bar, the feelings of a mysterious noir grow and swelter. Caulfield, along with his collaborator, Elon, turn “Narrating” into a straightforward 4/4-pleasure ride. Those ominous feelings prevalent in the original still remain, though they are not nearly as murky as before. Instead, this is a colossal build that supplements the aggressive beat with menacing atmospherics.

10 Year Tango is an exemplary release that epitomizes Dumb-Unit’s freshly claimed niche within the global community. It would have been interesting to see what the two could have done together, being that I enjoyed their remixing of each other better then the originals. While the originals are clearly representational of Dumb-Unit and its progress over the years, the remixes seemed to show signs of things to come. Despite the somewhat segregating format, this release further shows why Dumb-Unit is going to stick around for another 10 years; they simply have a lot more to show us.

A1) Hush

A2) Hush (Exercise One Remix)

B1) Narrating

B2) Narrating (JPC & Elon Remix)