Pole - Wald (2015)

Stefan Betke makes a welcome return eight years after his last LP, Steingarten. In places his style has adapted, bringing in different shades of melodic colour and tone in amongst the glitchy constructs he made his name on. At times the sound feels very different to the hushed, austere minimal dub of old, but then there are tracks such as "Wurzel (live)" that directly beam back into the heart of the original Pole sound without repeating the same tricks. If anything the sound is more dense here, pulsing with thick textures without losing that razor sharp precision that marks Betke out as an auteur in his own right.