Monolake Gravity

• 1. Mobile
• 2. Ice
• 3. Frost
• 4. Static
• 5. Zero Gravity
• 6. Fragile
• 7. Aviaion
• 8. Nucleus

Occupying its own space at the intersecion of dub techno, minimal and electronica, it's an ageless album of staggering vision and technological prowess which has matured into an all-time pillar of electronic music. This ediion, remastered by the album's key architect Robert Henke, follows on from the recent reissue of Monolake's first album, Hongkong.

Arriving just aler the turn of the millennium, Gravity marked a turning point for Monolake. With co-founder Gerhard Behles moving on to other ventures, Henke produced most of the album solo and journeyed deeper into spaial exploraion and the dub-informed principles that underpinned their project from the start.

Minimalism and negaive space run through the whole record, from the keen slithers of percussion pinging through lamces of delay to the hypnoising pulse of subliminal basslines anchoring the tracks. Gravity is a record which hangs on techno's linearity as a form of meditaion, but the crystalline clarity of the mix allows every micro-fluctuaion in rhythm and sound to cut through.

Compared to a lot of overly sterile digital music released in the early 2000s, Gravity endures thanks to the warmth and texture Henke elicited from his processes — even when leaning into none-more-digital effects like bit reducion. He described the ninth-floor view over Berlin from his studio at night as a key influence on the sound of the record, but the space Gravity shapes out feels thrillingly implacable. Unbound by the standard convenions of time and space, Gravity stands proud as a true original and finally gets the ceremonious vinyl pressing it so richly deserves.