Process The Wise
Label: Ampoule
Genre: Ambient, Electronic, Highlights
$36.99
Availability: In stock
Audiopile Review: Based on recent reissues of his early-2000s albums, we had Pub down as an eccentric dub-techno artist. But listening back to those, it’s clear the underappreciated Scottish producer is far more than that. On ‘Process the Wise’, his first LP of new tracks in over a decade, that fact is made vividly clear. The dub-techno elements do not even enter until halfway through the second track, and they seldom become dominant. Before that, we get Aphex-style melodies and Board of Canada-esque wooziness. But even those are complicated by minimalist process music manoeuvres, and the kind of semi-random arpeggios that have fuelled a million modular synth jams. Bleepy, bloopy, and distinctly tuneful, in other words. What noticeably remains from Pub’s earlier work is the absolute brilliance of execution. These tracks establish a strong atmosphere from the get-go and unfold with an elegant sense of drama and an admirable willingness to wrong-foot the listener. If you’ve been waiting for something that gives Warp’s ‘electronic listening music’ aesthetic a dubby, blissed out vibe, this is going to make your day. But beyond its obvious appeal, this music has a richness and subtle complexity that marks it out from a lot of superficially similar music. A truly heroic return.
Pub emerges from the mists to follow the ‘Autumn’ ep with his first album of new music in over a decade. ‘Process The Wise’ LP. A selection of tracks that are deeply lustrous and magical, equally measured yet wandering, with complimentary harmonics & scattered chaos. An inexplicable vibe, liquid feelings for endless summer nights.