Strategy

Originating in Portland, Oregon, the endeavor called Strategy belongs to DJ and multi-instrumentalist Paul Dickow, who also participates in Nudge and Fontanelle; it merges dub, funk, house, disco, ambient, and pop into a singularly glowing, fluid style that evades conventional categories. Dickow launched the Strategy project in 1999, applying a detailed, richly textured method first presented on the 2001 Counter-Clangs single via Archigramophone. Two years afterward he issued his debut album, Strut, through Outward Music Company while also handling a remix for Stars as Eyes on the Tigerbeat6 imprint. Additional singles and EPs then appeared on ORAC and Shockout. Strategy made its Kranky debut in 2004 with Drumsolo's Delight, an effort marked by tighter construction than the preceding album. At the same time Dickow established the Community Library label alongside David Chandler, performing as Solenoid; the imprint put out Strategy’s 2005 12" single World House. Subsequent remixes were completed for Nice Nice, the Blow, and the Juan Maclean, followed by the 2006 Fields of May single. The 2007 release Future Rock stood as Strategy’s most intricate yet approachable recording up to that point. Early the next year Audio Dregs delivered the ambient album Music for Lamping. Low Point then issued the Krautrock-influenced Electric Soup EP, while Entr'acte released the distorted dub 7" Noise Tape Reggae.

For several years afterward Strategy maintained a low profile, issuing only two limited 3" CD-R releases during 2009. The project resumed vinyl activity in 2011 via the EP Super Awareness Is Fruit on the U.K. label Under the Spire. Shortly thereafter the deep house single "The Fixer" surfaced on the Japanese imprint Endless Flight. Early in 2012 the 12" EP Boxy Music emerged on 100% Silk, a Not Not Fun subsidiary. That summer ZamZam Sounds released the 7" single "Dub in My System," while Endless Flight offered another 12", "Luna." In September the ambitious self-titled LP, which included contributions from guest musicians such as Thomas Meluch (Benoit Pioulard) and Fred Thomas, became the inaugural release on the Los Angeles-based Peak Oil label. By year’s end Boomarm Nation issued the cassette What If? In 2013 Strategy referenced the U.K. house scene on the 12" single "Return from the Stars" for Idle Hands. Another dub-oriented 7" on ZamZam Sounds, titled "Clocky Man," closed out the year.

Strategy returned to Peak Oil in 2014 with the rave-oriented Pressure Wassure 12" EP. Cassette editions also appeared that year on 100% Silk (Boxology) and Field Hymns (Cerebral Hut aka Off the Grid). Three full-length Strategy albums arrived in 2015: the related sets Seeds of Paradise on Idle Hands and Pods of Punishment on Entr'acte both surfaced in March, while Further Records issued Noise Tape Self (a collection of tape-loop pieces recorded between 2008 and 2010) in June. The same label released Strategy’s subsequent album, Information Pollution, in February 2016.