Dither – Summit

SummitDither begins with the dying breath of Tubetech, a fading sub-harmonic pitch which coalesces into a sharp, arresting ping. The crisp, metallic slice of time — of Dither's history — is held, momentarily suspended, and then the programmed rhythms and tonal melodies begin. Welcome to the new iteration of Dither; welcome to Summit.

 

Summit is another solid release by young French label M-Tronic — who, actually, shouldn't be classified as "young" any longer, the continued strength and quality of their output demonstrating an experienced eye. Dither's release for the chemically-themed label is suited to the operational aesthetic of the noisy and the melodic. Made up of ten untitled tracks, Summit mixes IDM's early penchant for uncomplicated ring-tone type melodies with a Ant-Zen and Hymen style technoid rhythm structure. The mix is sharpened by a knife edge of static and fractured noise. Summit is like Autrechre meets Gridlock in a "you've got your peanut butter in my chocolate" sort of moment with just a hint of Muslimgauze-style cut-ups and drop-outs. Crunchy goodness, you might say. The third track has two melody lines running through it: one precisely paced sequence which begins in the lower registers before climbing an octave or so, and the other is a rampant little tune which capers and bubbles overhead like an insistent tapping at the window. Smothering both is a thick mass of syncopated beats — a hearty layer of colliding energies which adds a vibrant texture to the looped melodies. The whole construct should collapse under its own weight, but Dither has a deft hand, knowing when to pare away the beats and allow the melodies to ring through.

 

Presented as a series of uninterrupted tracks,  Summit moves through a large variety of rhythms and textures while still managing to retain a cohesive envelope. Dither spins threads between the larger melodies and rhythms, teasing elements out of the mix and using them as connective tissue. The whole becomes this organic entity, as if Summit is nothing more than a chemical journey through the particular structures of the human body. Which, in the end, may be the answer to synthesized question posed by Dither's creative effort and M-Tronic's ideology: what is the chemical composition of noise and rhythm as crafted from and consumed by the human engine?