Polar returns in the end after 6 years in hiatus
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Label: Warm Communications
Year: 2008
Format: CD/LP
It has taken a long time, the absence of Norway’s drum & bass genius from the faltering scene came brutally as the producer at the center, Kjetil Dale Sagstad – aka K, Jazzassins, Polar – developed a bad case of tinnitus nearly a decade ago, while he and compatriot, Teebee, were laying siege on the drum & bass scene with their crispy-clean produced drum & bass on a kung fu meets science fiction tip.
Ever since their joint effort Black Science on former don of homes for Norwegian electronica, Beatservice, Polar and more importantly the artist’s production skills attracted the attention of many, featuring in several bigger music magazines with the blessings of established names like Laurent Garnier, Gilles Peterson, Fabio, Amon Tobin, to name a few.
Since early releases on Hope A imprint, then moving on to creating music on the computer with Teebee back in Bergen, Norway and gradually getting signed to labels such as Moving Shadow, Certificate 18, Rugged Vinyl and more. After the subliminal “37 degrees and falling” mini-album on Certificate 18, Polar gradually started to hone his production skills with a focus on atmospheric, glacial soundscapes with intricately programmed beats choosing wisely from cross-over genres of drum & bass, breakbeat, techno and electronica. The results earned him a big name in the drum & bass scene – one which has persisted throughout his unfortunate hiatus. Moving on from his successful mini-album, Certificate 18 saw two more releases, “Still Moving” and another short album “Out of The Blue”, both received to high acclaim, while at the same time Sagstad remained an illustrious hard-working musician running the Subtitles Music label with Teebee.
“Still Moving” stands out as a testament to Polar’s incredible production skills, a film noir-esque venture into breakbeat, hip hop and drum & bass with great electronic influence that stretched the boundaries of a narrowing drum & bass genre. It was around the time of work on his third solo album, back in 2002, “Out of the Blue”, that Sagstad suffered from his hearing injury, and having relocated to San Francisco, the scene was suddenly bereft of one of its main figures for the next 6 years. Thus it was a great pleasure to see Polar’s return to the scene, with the excellent new “In The End” dropped on Texas’ own “Warm Communications” label – run by EHL and home to many of Polar’s peers like ASC, Resound, Fanu, Banaczech.
“In The End” is great return for the producer on an unwilling hiatus, forward-thinking drum & bass productions are key, with Polar changing up his game from “Still Moving” and fattening the sounds and flavours. Polar has a great ability to blend deep and dark atmosphere with intricately programmed beat patterns – here present with several examples of coming offbeat and throwing you off before you latch on again, like in “Another Time” and freaky, warbled “High Voltage” which saw an early LP sampler release. His sound has retained some of the jazzy elements from his former repertoire, “Stepping Out” with a funky, piano melody tripping over speedy beats, broken rhythms and alarming synth sweeps. Some songs feel like that of beat-maestro Breakage, heavy, fat drums and basslines with a techy synth wash over the track as on “Uneven” which includes sounds very reminiscent of “Still Moving”. The opener “I Don’t Remember” feels like an outtake of the brilliant “37 Degrees and Falling” with the benefit of the musical maturity Polar has achieved since that release.
All in all, this album marks a fine return for Polar; one which fully shows his excellent musicianship and will satisfy old fans and gather new followers. It also makes for a fine follow-up to “Still Moving”, but probably overall does not bring alot new to the table but will help jog our memory who Polar was all those years ago and what he is capable of. We look forward to future releases from one of Norway’s finest exports in the drum & bass and breakbeat scene.
