- The third release on DVS1's Mistress label plucks a diamond in the rough from Minneapolis, his hometown, for two EPs of musty techno that could've been reconstructed from old Workshop and Ostgut Ton records. On his debut, Doubt drums up genuine excitement with well-worn sounds.
Doubt has a way with looping, truncated samples, smoothing their jagged edges with a thick layer of dust. His drowsy but assertive techno channels the ornate coldness of gothic architecture. "Remember Fono" pivots on a metallic swing while a mournful melody swoons in the background. "Not Before" matches its unstable core elements with a pummelling techno beat, and the grandiose "Captain Hours" frames creaky brass leads with well-timed LFO wobbles. "Noc" has a sticky melody that gums up the beats while hi-frequency synths spark like live wires. These tracks are built from the faceless sounds that define Berghain-style techno, but they're laced with gilded noises that sparkle, and are put together with real imagination.
The bonus 10-inch includes two longer tracks that make an even stronger case for Doubt's approach. "Beauty," with its rhythmic pings and frightening synth wails, could be something Norman Nodge would play, but Doubt rips out the centre for a gorgeous breakdown accented by some sort of string instrument. "Vertigo," meanwhile, sounds like a gutted Caretaker track, with a piano melody landing between the beats like dripping condensation.
TracklistA1 Remember Fono
A2 Not Before
B1 Captain Hours
B2 Noc