Biography
Paul Dickow was a fan of synth-pop who simultaneously learnt keyboards, drums and the mechanics of programing. He went on to drum in the art-punk outfit Emergency, play keyboards in Fontanelle and multiple instruments in Nudge.
Paul Dickow has been performing and DJ-ing as Strategy at dance clubs, rock clubs, dance parties and galleries up and down the US west coast. He releases music on his Archigramophone imprint and curates monthly Community Library nights at the Dunes club in Portland, Oregon. Strategy has released dance singles (with Seattle's ORAC label), remixes and a debut album 'Strut', on the Portland-based Outward Music label in summer 2003.
Strategy wires together Dickow's programming and performing experience via a hodgepodge of table top electronics, computers and realtime musicianship. Combining a granular ambient aesthetic with an abstract, percolating rhythmic sensibility, Strategy unites small parts into complete melodies motivated by complex pulsations. 'The Portland Mercury' described Dickow as "Portland's laptop prankster/meister of disquo."
The release of 'Drumsolo's Delight' in April 2004 initiated a wave of activity on Dickow's part, including the release of two singles on the Shockout label (the second of which is a version constructed around a Gregory Isaacs acapella), commissions to remix tracks by Charles Atlas, Tussle and UI and an appearance at the Sonar Festival in June 2004.
Dickow's third Strategy album, 'Future Rock' (his second release on Kranky), is easily Strategy's most complex, narrative, ambitious and overtly "pop" record to date. It's also practically a thesis statement for his vision of a genre-free musical world. To date you've heard Strategy dabble in everything from headphone-oriented ambient music to house and dub; this is the work that brings it all together.