Pan/Tone

A desolate mining town in Northern Ontario is the last place you’d expect to be the breeding ground for one of Canada’s best known laptop musicians. Pan/tone, aka Shelbono Del Monte. To date he has had numerous releases on renowned minimal microhouse labels BackGround, Onitor, Neuton, Substatic and Algorithm’s Revolver, but Newfound Urban Calm, a co-production between France’s Bip Hop and Swayzak’s 240 Volts label, is perhaps the best. Shelbono flirts with techno-rock and takes the micro-sound into much dirtier terrain than most with gritty bass lines and a focus on dance inspiring rhythms. The accompanying remix album includes interpretations by Torontonians Adam Marshall and Jeff Milligan as well as M.I.A., Frank Martiniq, Andy Vaz and Losoul. This is a tight album that is sure to set more discerning dance floors on fire. Urban Calm is a decidedly new step for Bip Hop and although it’s a great album, I hope that they don’t abandon their more experimental roots artists like Wang Inc., Bovine Life and Komet.