posted: 2025-07-18 Polygon_Cities Monolake

Polygon Cities is a fine album, and the tracks which comprise it are fine examples of current trends in minimalist techno. In the past few years there’s been a turn away from the massive and grand, inwards towards the intimate and intricate. The sound of artists such as Matthew Dear and the Kompakt roster is complex and detailed, rewarding an attention to detail with well-constructed rhythmical patterns built out of disparate elements combined for cumulative effect. The style on Polygon Cities could almost be termed progressive techno, insomuch as it retains a fondness for those atmospheric elements of Jamaican dub, which in turn creates a resemblance to the airy, slightly removed aesthetic of progressive house. It is well-crafted and enjoyable music.

Techno is by its nature a repetitive genre, a field built around the conceit of expressing emotion through emulation of the slight temperamental variations in precision machinery. There is nothing new in Monolake: their fragile intricacy, brooding atmosphere and preference for the subtle revelation over the grandiose movement place them well of a kind with the cutting edge of techno in 2005.

Tim O'Neil, Pop Matters