POLE Vinyl & CDs

Review: In honour of the launch of the "Love Record Stores" project, Mute has decided to make Pole's brilliant third album, "3", available in a special yellow-vinyl edition. That's as good an excuse as any to add it to your record collection, though the set's undisputed quality and stone-cold classic status is arguably more of a selling point. By the time he originally released it, Stefan Betke had successfully fine-tuned his spaced-out, minimalist electronic dub style. Combining hypnotic rhythms, some influenced by hip-hop and others by Basic Channel style dub techno, with deep dub basslines, opaque electronics and dusty, often glitchy samples, Betke used "3" to cement his reputation as a genuine sonic innovator. While all of his albums are essential, "3" is arguably the best of the lot.