Daniel Meteo

On these shores, Berliner Daniel Meteo is best known as one-half of the hip-hop-laced nu-dub duo Bus. They have released two albums on the ~scape label — 2003’s Middle of the Road and 2005’s Feelin’ Dank — that never quite registered an accurate impression of the extent of the duo’s capabilities and involvement in the European electronic music scene. For his part, Meteo runs the label Meteosound, manages T. Raumschmiere’s Shitkatapult imprint, and is generally considered one of the premier booking agents for electronic music in Europe. Striking out on his own with Peruments, Meteo looks to the UK for inspiration, where dubstep has been building a renewed loyal following over the past few months. Fusing the dub-techno of Chain Reaction with the sunny rocksteady under-currents of an Augustus Pablo, the new dubstep constitutes the next logical progression of all that great minimal dub-techno that was pouring out of Berlin during the late ’90s. On Peruments, Meteo offers up a textbook permutation of where dub is headed in European hands: muted 4/4 beats, third-generation bass lines that sound as though they’re coming from down the street, the steady atonal overtures of erstwhile melodica and other beachfront instruments. Mellow but not blunted, minimal without sounding hollow, Peruments is Meteo’s strongest record to date.