[Perlon]

Since mystery is in the air here at LWE (and because I invoked his name yesterday’s review) it seems only fair to have a look at the latest platter from shadowy producer, STL. Known to his friends as Stephan Laubner, STL releases the majority of his music on his own label, Something Records (if you order something from their well stocked website, you’ll likely deal with Mr. Laubner himself) and with his buddies at Perlon.

His sound is anything but easy to pin down, varying from imposing ambient pieces of manipulated field recordings, lo-fi deep house and minimal techno, sometimes within the same release. Needing only his own approval, Laubner is free to explore the dance floor’s edges, much as Thomas Melchior has in his solo releases. STL releases are rounded out with a handful of short loops, encouraging fans and DJs to build their own floor filler. It’s all rather refreshingly DIY in a way Myspace and Beatport hardly approach. “Lost In Brown Eyes,” STL’s third Perlon release (if you count his split with Ric Y Martin from 2000), is another fine example of the man’s self reliant talents.

As with many of STL’s pieces, the title track’s gloomy palette contours the less cheerful moments of deep house. Each of its element slip in at a different fidelity: moist hand claps, a muted, wriggling bass line, slits of front and center hi-hat, and lucid chords whose melancholic progressions suggest a hypnotic attraction. “Paku Paku” is more hunched over while still relishing a variety of uncommonly sourced elements. Its eventual woozy motif is pushed into place by bone crunching bass and scrap metal hats, as if scoring the entrance of a wild-eyed sorcerer. “2 Ya Ear” starts friendly enough to dance floors — a nimble, two tone melody, snappy percussion contractions and a distorted vocal of the title — then embraces supernatural swirls and malevolent synth growls; imagine “Catch the Beat” in need of an exorcism.

Then there are the loops. Whereas “One” is tight and jacking, a watery underpinning and Rhoads flourishes loosen up “Two.” “Three” struggles to keep its frustrated clangs in time, while “Four” is constricted and unnerved. Having not yet found a DJ bold enough to try out any of “Lost In Brown Eyes” in a club I’m unsure how well these would work with dancers (perhaps a combination of elements would work better than solo). Perhaps Prosumer, who is a dedicated fan, is able to find and audience receptive in his travels. Regardless, Stephan Laubner turns out cleverly constructed and evocative tunes with an auteur’s ease and his self-enabling label structure has emboldened him more than your average floor-conscious producer. That he spends more time on his music and its release than his personality solves this bit of mystery.