Dub Tractor - Hello Ambient Wash (2017)

b. Anders Remmer, 19 January 1964, Denmark. Remmer creates music that is both emotional and utilitarian such that a track named ‘E47’ might equally refer to a fetishized (Soundelux) microphone, as be a paean to the road which links Copenhagen and Helsingor in Remmer’s native North Zealand. With laudable attention to detail, the Copenhagen-based musician merges precision-tooled programming with acoustic elements to create an initially unassuming and low key music that necessitates (and warrants) repeated plays to yield results. Remmer appropriates electronica’s usual palette of clicks, crackles and hiss but subtly deploys these alongside instruments such as (processed) acoustic guitar. Despite the inclusion of dub in his recording moniker, Remmer uses the effect discriminatingly.

On 2003’s More Or Less Mono, the most overt nod to dub was on ‘50 Hz Guitar’, a track that pulsed with low end noise but merged this effect with pretty guitar - tellingly, Dub Tractor’s music also carries trace echoes of miserablist 80s guitar pop. For Dub Tractor, words are to be used sparingly: on ‘I Don’t Care’ (from More Or Less Mono), the only lyrics utilized are those of the title, and the sentiment seems to be nonchalant rather than belligerent. On ‘Hum (Part 4)’ (from the same release) the words are mumbled so as to be more or less inaudible. Remmer also records as Future3 and System with Thomas Knak (aka Björk collaborator Opiate) and Jesper Skaaning (aka Acustic).