Dogmatic Sequences - The Series (1994-2006)

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It takes some kind of dedication to create a specific album over 12 years' time, though admittedly Dogmatic Sequences is less a self-contained album than a compilation of three related EPs covering 12 years' time. But Patrick Pulsinger's striking work on all three, when put together on a disc, not only holds up incredibly well but acts as an inadvertent tour of a time and place in electronic music — it's almost overwhelming to realize that the first efforts came out just a year after, say, Plastikman's Sheet One and think of all the sonic changes and developments since then. Certainly the pulsing acid attack of "Agom Drag" and the crisp groove of "Numb Thrust" are of their time (Hardfloor were probably wondering if they should have looked into some of the sonic similarities further), but like anything good it holds up well beyond it, as much a precursor to something like Black Strobe as a descendant of Derrick May on overdrive. While "Rouleur" continues in that general vein, some tracks from the second EP step firmly away from that approach toward a wider variety of sounds, with prominent beats eschewed for subtler (and often much more unsettling) clicks and rhythms, as on "City Lights, Pt. 1," which while hardly predicting dubstep's emergence seems to play calmly around in the same sort of urban paranoia playground that acts like Panacea have. By the time of the final release, Pulsinger's abilities had grown even more assured, with "Looq" being both a straight-up acid kick and a polyrhythmic groove that blended together perfectly, while the latter quality stepped out even more on "City Lights, Pt. 2," which managed to evoke acid jazz without sounding utterly dull — a rare thing in anyone's hands.