Well this is something really different. Radboud Mens is a sound-artist, composer and sound designer from the Netherlands. He started creating noise-machines in 1988. On his Disgogs page you will find a ton of releases going back to 1999 and he shows no sign of stopping anytime soon. 'Sine,' his fourth release from 2000 is considered a masterpiece of click dub electronica. This updated version contains three new tracks (added to the original 5) that go beyond what was laid down initially.

What we have here is the subtlest of glitch-dub recordings and to be perfectly honest, listening to the album on vinyl for the first time, I thought maybe I had a bad pressing. Some of the clicks and ticks have that same sound like a damaged record. The "tell" so to speak is that they're rhythmic in a way that defects almost never really are. So there is a variety of very minimal rhythms with a dub aspect. There is a looped rhythm on "Mol" (last track on the A-side) that has that sound when a record gets stuck in the last groove, but after some repeats other elements come in and make it something entirely different. Actually, this made it one of my favorite tracks on the album. In a weird way

Although "Metal/Dub/Plate" was on the original 'Sine' release, here it ends up as the first track on the B-side, with a less minimal approach as more elements are added to the rhythm. Its repetition creates an easy listening trance-like environment, like elevator music for robots. "Start Again" juxtaposes low, sub-harmonic frequencies with tiny ticks, tapping. "Condition" begins with slowly wavering low frequency feedback and a glitchy rhythm that takes a couple of pauses, but the low frequency oscillation does not stop. Final track "Circle of Fifths" (remix) is the fullest, most musical track on the album with rich drones and the most minimal rhythm you could imagine- not much more than a sub-harmonic kick and a click keeping the beat.

I think that it's a very cool thing that Staalplaat (the label that originally released 'Sine') re-released the updated version of the album. The 12" record is a limited edition of 400 copies on purple vinyl. I think I may have gotten a less than perfect pressing as even after properly cleaning the record before a first play it sounded like there was some surface noise. I listened to the digital on the Staalplaat site and there were some things that could have been construed as surface noise but over all, it was quieter. As I've said, this is a very subtle album where any vinyl defect can make a difference, but at only 17 Euros, it's worth it. Originally released back in 2021, I'm sort of surprised they still have copies left, but they do.