Strategy
Fri April 30
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison
Portland’s Paul Dickow is a multi-tasking maniac. Besides co-running the Archigramophone and Community Library labels, he plays keyboards for funkadelic post-rockers Fontanelle and many instruments for brainy IDM trio Nudge. But it’s his solo project that may launch Dickow into discerning boomboxes and iPods worldwide. His new album as Strategy, Drumsolo’s Delight (Kranky), will make you wonder how this former punk drummer (in celebrated Portland trio Emergency) morphed into a highly evolved purveyor of soul-kissing dub and blissful ambience.
Delight fits snugly within Kranky’s studious expansion into electronica alongside releases by Pan American and loscil. All three artists create a sub-aquatic immersiveness that makes you yearn for the womb–or that flotation tank Bill Hurt used in Altered States. Now more than ever, this kind of music serves a crucial function. Oddly, Dickow expresses surprise that the renowned Chicago label deigned to release Delight.
“I’ve been a [Kranky] fan since their first release,” he replies via email, “but I thought my music [inhabited] some weird corner of IDM or dance music or electronica. It makes sense to me now; I think they see me as performatively having some classic sorts of elements like [’70s kraut-rock legends] Cluster or Conrad Schnitzler (classic as in a guy with a table full of synthesizers and boxes), but then all modern-sounding like Pole or something.”
I ask Dickow if Portland (its climate, people, topography, strip joints, etc.) impacts his music, and if he thinks there’s a distinctive sound among Pacific Northwest electronic musicians.
“Yes. Is there a distinctive sound among Cascadian musicians? I don’t know. There’s a tendency toward the extremely weird, though! I think the isolation breeds a lot of interesting results–you know, people take up weird hobbies and get really into them when they’re bored.”
Does Drumsolo’s Delight portend Strategy’s future musical direction?
“I am trying to make a music that is neither all-body-music nor all-head-music, but perfectly in between. The next Strategy release is a 12-inch for ORAC that is some kind of heavy, 4/4 dub-disco release. The next Strategy CD is called Future Rock, and I am writing for it now. I wanted to have an ‘ambient’ music with the propulsion of rockin’ dance tracks, soul tracks, dub, rap, etc., so it’s kind of like this washy cloud music. Buried in its core is various fast-rhythm music–some kind of guitar riff, or an electro break, or another foreign element, and a strong dubbed-out soul component throughout,” he says.
“But for now, the texture and approach of Drumsolo’s is my M.O. It’s a bit elegiac and moody, and I was sad when I wrote it. Future Rock embodies a little more of the bustle of the urban neighborhood I moved to this winter. This is like some dirty street-ambient shit–like hearing the Wild Style soundtrack through a fuzzy lens!”