Ian Mono – Shadow Mountain

Our Saturday selection: Ian Mono – Shadow Mountain (Echobound, EB003)

Dutchman Ian Mono serves up the third release on his own Echobound label and brings plenty of exploratory dub techno vibes to the three terrific tracks. It comes as a digital release, and also a deluxe package featuring a sample pack and extra stems.

Ian Mono is not only an artist, but also a Mastering Engineer and Ableton Tutorial maker with his own vital YouTube channel featuring a wealth of tutorials. He has a love of pirate radio stations, Detroit techno and illegal raves, has travelled the world to party and now see this new label as a community as well as place to release music. This new EP is a combination of studio experiments and jams conducted in Mono’s new studio room and shows off his love for vintage hardware, digital plugins and creative freshness.

“The track ‘78 78’ is a shortwave recording of the cold war era number stations,” explains Ian. “’Shifting’ came to life when researching wavetable synthesis and experimenting with tape delays to create a typical Basic Channel 90’s sound that changes over time, and ‘Fading’ started as an ambient track by using digital noise sources to create an atmospheric journey which would fit on your playlist when driving a car for at least 12 hours.”

The excellent opener ’78 78’ is a heavy, busy bit of atmospheric dub techno that is cut from rock. The grainy textures and hissing frequencies as well as muffled vocals lend it the feel of an illicit radio broadcast and it is sure to make an impact in any warehouse.

The superb ‘Shifting’ is then a more stripped back and supple affair that’s inspired by the icy dub techno of Basic Channel. It’s rhythmically playful, laden with reverb and is a full fat track with expert synth work next to the slick drum programming.

Last of all, ‘Fading’ has bottomless depth, with minimal drum work and ripple chords disappearing off to infinity in all directions. It sinks you way down into the groove and is a perfectly heady, widescreen dub track for intimate club spaces.

This is another classy EP from Ian Mono that once again proves his Echobound label is a vital one.

Tracklist: Ian Mono – Shadow Mountain (Echobound, EB003)

01. 78 78
02. Shifting
03. Fading

Buy release: Digital