Turning to great American abstract painter Mark Rothko for inspiration, Montreal's dub techno veteran Deadbeat distils 15 years of electronic dub into 'Radio Rothko', his first mix album appearing on US label The Agriculture.

The level of abstraction and sophistication with which Scott Monteith pulls this off would indeed be deserving of Rothko's patronage. Not only did Monteith choose some of the finest tracks the genre has to offer, he has also dissected and reassembled their elements into a brilliantly crafted flow, much more resembling a concept album than a collection of tracks or a DJ mix.

It is the way how Deadbeat both intricately layers his echoing textures and pays attention to the bigger picture at the same time, which makes 'Radio Rothko' one of the most conceptually sound mix albums ever recorded. Starting out in a subdued 4-by-4 fashion, Monteith lines up Basic Channel, Pendle Coven and Quantec, before peaking with Marko Fürstenberg's intense 'Site 312'. From here he suddenly breaks up the rhythm with Monolake and 2562, arriving at Rhythm & Sound's classic dub reduction 'Mango Drive', before ending the mix on high note with his own dub house track 'Deep Structure'.

Clocking in at just over an hour, 'Radio Rothko' is a beautiful work, both for the uninitiated, who will find many of the genre's undisputed highlights in this mix, as well as for electronic dub's die-hard fans, who will marvel at Deadbeat's sense of dramatic composition. Superb.