C – Skee Mask – Self Released January 4th, 2024
Skee Mask is a DJ/producer from Munich. He first rose to prominence with the release of his 2016 album Shred, the first of three albums released on Ilian Tape, the label run by fellow Bavarian bass pioneers, the Zenker Brothers.
In 2022, Skee Mask self-released two albums, simply titled A and B respectively, consisting of older, previously unreleased material.
And it’s the same story on this new 2024 album, another self-released title full of older tracks and no prizes for guessing the album’s title, C.
The 11 tracks featured on C all date from a four-year period between 2016 to 2020 ranging from heavily textured ambient to abstract breaks, but always with heavy dub influences and generous helpings of sub bass.
Diving Into The C
The album opens with the brooding ambience of MDP2.
It’s then followed by Bassline Dub which certainly delivers on its premise with lashings of sub bass and scattershot dub elements mixed with rich ambient textures, all drizzled over jazz-adjacent polyrhythmic breaks.
Ambient, as you may already know if you read these reviews regularly, is a genre I’m at best ambivalent about, at worst bored senseless by. Breakbeats and dub, different story.
So it’s fair to say my hyperactive ass isn’t going to stay in the seat long enough to review an entire album full of ambient, unless there’s some percussive elements to keep me focussed.
Thankfully Skee Mask provides plenty of that, engineering vast cavernous domed cathedrals for bass worshippers, swelling with sounds and intricate melodies, while also giving me soothing to groove on.
And the grooves on here are just sublime.
Track three, Keygruv, is certainly one I can groove to, it’s got elements of classic German dub techno, with hints of Detroit, Chicago and UK breaks, it all snaps together perfectly yet it’s arranged asymmetrically, not your standard four to the floor fare, but infectious none the less.
Aktif Garbon, on the other hand, is a more conventional slice of muted dub techno with melodic ambient flourishes.
It’s followed by FFB7 Dub, another brooding ambient track though the gentle drubbing of sub bass and earhair-bristling layers of echo tick the requisite boxes required to earn Skee Mask the right to put the word “dub” in the title.
(I’m a stickler for this, dub standards must be upheld.)
One For Vertigo starts off with a glitchy hypnotic loop as soft pads wash over the top. Then an unexpected rhythmic twist as an oddly skewed garage-inspired beat is introduced.
This delightful rhythmic counterpoint helps make Vertigo one of the most interesting tracks on the album for me.
Minitx merges deep, metallic frequencies with more off kilter polyrhythms and spacey melodies.
It’s another perfect example of how Skee Mask (and his Ilian Tape contemporaries) manage to ride that fine line between forward-thinking freeform experimentation and traditional bass-driven dancefloor sensibilities.
More electro ambience on 11616, this one has a steadier breakbeat underneath and is slightly reminiscent of vintage Aphex Twin.
Actually, as I re-read this prior to publishing I’ve realised there’s another lesser-known (and criminally underrated) producer who I’m also reminded of while listening to this, and that’s Kingsuk Biswas, aka Bedouin Ascent, who’s debut album came out 30 years ago on Rising High, so also just realising that’s another Backspin article I’ll be invariably rushing to finish @ 2am.
…Digressions are part of my charm…
Blok is another meditative piece of hazy ambient. It’s followed by Pitchacid, a downtempo piece with glitchy drums and rising, dream-like pads.
As with tracks with dub in the title, I must also police tracks that invoke the word “acid.”
Yes, there’s a 303 in here alright, but it’s deeply submerged beneath strong currents of feedback and reverb so is barely perceptible.
I’m an old-fashioned raver who likes his acid front and centre. Not that I dislike this track, but if you’re going to put the word “acid” in the title I wanna hear the 303 loudly squaking in my ear like the crows outside my window pecking for earthworms on a wet, miserable Monday morning.
(Big shoutout to the corvid crew, thanks for waking me up guys.)
The final track is called “thnk u” and it’s, well, did I use the phrase “hazy ambient” already? Ctrl F, haz… ah shit I did. Foggy? Misty? How about I call it miasmiant?
No, the crows are still cawing their disapproval outside my window and I can tell from their expression they think that’s really shit.
So let’s just call it what it is, an ambient track, quiet, soothing, an obligatory gentle fade out from an album which, though comprised of leftover tracks, is nonetheless a compelling listen from start to finish.
Format C:
On a better day when my brain’s not trying to slowly thaw out I could come up with much better C-related headlines.
Honestly, I used to have a lot more imagination, but the corporate world burned it out of me.
C señor, I C Weiner, C&Skee Music Factory… nope, those are all much worse, still there’s there’s plenty more puns in the C…
Actually no, looking around for support but not getting any so best quit while I’m ahead.
The crows outside my window are glowering down their beaks at me, there’s a whole gang of them now.
Out in the streets they call it murder.
So yeah, let’s all pretend I had a really witty C pun at the top there so the crows can go back to pecking for worms and the rest of us can all move on with our lives.
Crows are highly intelligent creatures, incidentally, so I’m sure they’d agree that, although C is definitely not an album for the dancefloor, you can definitely groove to it in places.
As a relentlessly impatient idiot with potentially undiagnosed ADHD it’s most certainly not my tempo, but with each new listen I’m finding new things to hold my attention.
Also, sometimes when I’m writing I need something quiet, so this suits the bill perfectly.
This album is many things all at once. It’s home listening, but with club sensibilities. It’s mostly chilled but far from boring, there’s plenty going on here sonically, melodically and rhythmically, to reward you for repeat listens.
You can actively listen to it, headphones on, and drift away into a dreamlike state, or you can play it in the background while you work, helping your 9-5 mundanity pass by that little bit easier.
Plus it’s a name your price release on Bandcamp, so it’s a no brainer.
Oh, you’re reviewing a free album u cheapskate? Yes, as a matter of fact I am.
I’m telling you to go check out this remarkable artist if you’ve never encountered him before, because you’ve got nothing to lose, except perhaps the time you spend drifting off, staring out the window at crows as you’re left mesmerised by these uniquely sculpted soundscapes.