basic channel/maurizio/chain reaction, s&d

"1.2" by resilient
"no. 8" by various artists
"m6" by maurizio
"lantau/macao" by monolake
any of the early porter ricks 12"s, but especially the "redundance" double pack
the basic channel collection cd
and the scion "arrange and process basic channel" cd

The second self-titled Rhythm & Sound cd (esp. 'Trace' and 'Roll Off')

The Maurizio cd is also excellent (M7 is my favorite track). Must get the Ploy 12" one of these days, seems it has been rereleased along with all BC 12"s.

and those CR albums Aaron mentions + 'Relish' by Substance and 'Elevation' by Vainqueur.

Maurizio:
All are considered classics by many - personal fav's are M3, M5, M6, M7

Chain Reaction:
Havent heard all but most are nice, a continuation of BC with increasingly refined production and newer talent added to the roster.. Personal favorite releases from the ones I know: Substance - "Relish", Pelon - "No Stunts", Porter Ricks - "Port of Nuba", Vladislav Delay - "Huone", Fluxion - "Largo" 2x12".

phylyps seconded, plus king of the empire and faith by r&s.

still

lots of the web reviews say things like "of course you can't FULLY experience the deepness of the M tracks unless you hear them in their full 19 minute unedited versions". i've been considering tracking down the nonedits and making a 6cd comp of all the M/BC stuff but i'm not sure it's entirely worth it.

there's "I'm Your Brother", which finds Rhythm&Sound succumbing to their most deeply closeted gay house tendencies. then a Ron Trent remix that's incredible woozy bliss in a non-dubhouse style, followed by an amazing basic channel dub of the same track that sends it into deep outerspace.

there's Tikiman's "Find A Way", which is 9 minutes of astounding roots vocals over what sounds like the warmest, trad-housiest maurizio track ever. there's the "Na Fe Throw It" version, which is this totally nocturnal crawlspace between faint static and fat bass tones.

i can't believe biba kopf called this "uninspired mainstream house" or some nonsense like that.

I was actually thinking of doing the same thing but after awhile I lost interest. I'm filling the gaps of the Basic Channel cd by buying the BC-1, BC-7 and maybe BC-9 reissues.

But now it seems I have to go and seek that Main Street cd.

...and find it I did. Thanks vahid, for...well...making such a good case for this cd, because it is pretty amazing, not at all what you would expect.

been listening to a LOT of Hallucinator recently. chain reaction is such a treasure trove.

anyone have any particular hallucinator recommendations?

also, anyone know of good online vendors who sell a lot of this stuff? (records/cds, not mp3s)

Forced Exposure's pretty good on BC/CR stuff. The stuff that's in print anyway.

"Magenta" still floors me every time I hear it. And def search Rhythm & Sound's "Trace/Imprint" 12" as well

and jesus, get all the quadrant stuff. fuckin sick.

mark you'd be wanting this: http://hardwax.com/basic-channel/

Ah get all of it! It all sounds the same anyway! But if you see the above, etc.

these guys just had a showcase on this stuff

http://hypnotic-breaks.blogspot.com/

s: basic channel t-shirt

QUADRANT

s: basic channel t-shirt

-- haitch, Tuesday, 9 October 2007 05:23

if i saw someone in a basic channel t shirt, i'd give them a little nod and then maybe they'd nod back or grin like "'sup".

is that site giving away entire EPs (indeed, practically entire catalogues)? if so, that's pretty fucked.

they're sort of working off the same idea as Discogs Report, but with even more downloads of more stuff.

which is pretty fucked.

also pretty fucked: i was going to do a little thing on the basic channel family on my blog. now i have to stick to chain reaction stuff.

i'm all in favour of music blogs posting up some digitized old vinyl that's been out of print for 10 years or whatever but this is all still available to buy, isn't it?

and given that the only way to download all that is to give rapidshare some money this is like, illegal x100000 - also i hate rapidshare, have i mentioned that?

@_@

i be like damn

new model 500! cool!

that deepchord album (coldest season) is probably the best electronic lp from this year

Yeah, but the echospace stuff like vahid linked above pisses me off with it's extremely limited availability. I haven't been able to get any of them yet and I've wanted them all. Still haven't even heard a rip of the CV313 and I need to!

Well I guess I should've looked at the blog Jena linked above. They're all there. But I still want the vinyl! And I agree with the others, giving away readily available releases in their entirety just pisses me off.

next time you feel stupid for wasting time arguing on ILX, consider that some people address their need for attention by stealing music and posting it on the internet

wow i just clicked over to that blog! a mint original pressing of the quadrant ep on r&s is going for 50 euros on discogs..

i have slowly been collecting all of the basic channel releases from hardwax (on fat colored vinyl even)

hong kong by monolake is going for 100 euros in the metal tin

someone paid $30 for *JUST THE CD* on ebay last month

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat

I feel bad for posting that link now :/ I've got about 15-20 of blogs like this in my bookmarks, and I'm not even really looking.

the dude who sold "just the CD" = first case of the metal tin breaking the metal tin

i liek 2 downlode

are the echospace 12"s different from the cd's tracks in any way?

Something I read seemed to suggest that the cd tracks were actually extended versions (or maybe different mixes) of the 12" tracks in certain cases.

Got the Scion "Arrange and Process" in the mail yesterday. Overall it's more upbeat techno than expected, but it sounds great. So far it seems BCD1 is a deeper listen, and wish the vinyl series was available on CD or official download.

those echospace detroit releases aren't particularly limited. they keep on repressing them. they are, however, ridiculously expensive.

i sold my monolake metal tin for in excess of $80 last year. it's getting reissued so get on it.

wish the vinyl series was available on CD or official download.

torrenttorrenttorrenttorrenttorrenttorrenttorrenttorrent

the vinyl series mp3 rips i've heard on soulseek are horrendous quality

torrenttorrenttorrenttorrenttorrenttorrenttorrenttorrent

Yeah, I've seen the blog link upthread but the old-fashioned warm fuzzy feeling of supporting the artists really adds to my enjoyment of the music.

i LOVE that arrange & process record. at first i wasn't so into it, but i came to it over time.

the vinyl series mp3 rips i've heard on soulseek are horrendous quality

-- resolved, Wednesday, October 10, 2007 11:01 AM (21 minutes ago)

i must have the good rips then :_)

who knows, i'm comparing to how the records sound through an ok stereo so it's never going to be a fair contest. real master-sourced mp3s would be so much better but i highly doubt it's ever going to happen.

"sound quality" is sorta missing the point w/r/t basic channel, no?

way xpost

You know I just saw that the cv313 echospace was re-pressed resolved. I'll definitely try to get one of those, but it's kinda weird they're doing that after all the talk of these limited pressings.

xp, i always thought the point was a kind of hi-fi lossiness. you are gonna lose the hiss with compression!

no i don't think saying vinyl rips of basic channel aren't up to scratch is missing the point. obviously the series is imperfect sounding but it's a calculated imperfection, widescreened and bassy -- both of which are lacking from VINYL RIPPED 192 mp3s. although clearly they're far better than nothing if you don't want to buy a turntable/all the records.

it all depends on the 12" anyway. if you're saying superior sound quality doesn't add any extra value to eg bc04 we'll have to agree to disagree.

well, i know that the original pressing of round two sounded like utter crap and not on purpose. and there was sand or dirt on the stamper for the repress of lyot reshape. i don't think the poor sound quality was always calculated.

but you are right about them wanting to sound imperfect. the best description i ever heard of their sound was "like hearing a dope warehouse rave from a couple blocks away"

yeah some of the pressings are quite sloppy, i'll give you that -- but the clear version of bc04 -- oof. one of the best sounding records i own.

i dunno about the crackly press of lyot remix being unintentional though... i actually think it sounds better that way! as hardwax notes about its dancehall: "Most of these are Jamaican pressings, with crackle and dust built in. This is how it’s supposed to be!"

rhythm and sound no longer together?

http://www.eleventhvolume.com/miscellany/2007/08/04/sad-news/

i'd say moritz von oswald doing a remix of 2raumwohnung is a fairly strong indicator they're on a break at least. whatever happened to that luciano remix he had scheduled on ostgut ton?

holy blargh.

Anyway, if the warehouse rave thing is true of Basic Channel, then I feel like Fluxion is hearing a dark warehouse rave from inside a gigantic tank of water.

also. UR mix of Ploy is great, had never heard it before a few days ago.

they both did separate remixes of Tony Allen this year too.

yeah i know but the relative insignificance of 2raumwohnung just set the really set the alarm bells ringing for me...

-1st set the...

no offence intended to 2raumwohnung particularly. i'd just never imagine them getting a basic channel family remix.

i still haven't heard the full m-series, just the comp. cd

who's loss? your loss!

resolved, you are right about bc-04. the way that first track sounds, that way it moves me... i think my favorite basic channel song if i picked one. funky, dark, moody, uplifting rhythms, perfect timing, pumping bass

and the UR mix of ploy! that's what made me listen to UR. probably my fave UR song besides amazon and transition.

That Moritz mix of Tony Allen! =00000000000

should be 2x as long

wait, im thinking of moyege (marks disco dub).

maurizio!

substance!

i listen to the R&S CD the most of all the BC related stuff, followed by the BC:CD and then the Main Street CD. i have a bunch of all this stuff on vinyl, and i love playing the M records in a deejay set but on their own they dont do much.

and i know this is close to heresy, but i dont really like any of the Chain Reaction stuff. maybe a couple monolake bits and a couple porter ricks jams but most of that stuff is too clinical, not enough soul for my taste.

poppycock.

pipecock: no love for vainqueur? not even this?

That record isn't actually on Chain Reaction.

thanks for pointing that out

cos i said 'no love for chain reaction, not even this' up there, i can see

Rene Lowe's best work was on labels other than CR. Pipecock was not criticising Vainquer, but CR as a whole.

resolved fucking up doesn't make pipecock right, though

"pipecock: no love for vainqueur? not even this?

-- resolved"

nah, even that i thought was wildly overrated. some of my least favorite BC/R&S related records are the ones with tikiman on them (the early Burial mixes, the 2 middle Main Streets [though the last mainstreet is DEEEEEEEP, possible my favorite R&S jam!], etc). and vaniquer is just not my kind of thing. its funny, of the CR stuff, i feel like they were related to BC in the most shallow possible manner, none of it can really match the emotional content of the R&S records. obviously the BC guys were into it since they released it, but it was like they were putting out the less interesting music related to what they came up with.....

i think the early burial mixes are some of the best. never tell you the time and what a mistry are fantastic.

why is king

"i think the early burial mixes are some of the best. never tell you the time and what a mistry are fantastic.

-- elan"

i just dont feel them as much as say "best friend" (imo so obviously the best one), "music hit you", or "king/queen in my empire"......

yeah, best friend might be the best. and music hit you! that was the first thing where i sat down with a drum machine and figured out the beat. it's pretty simple, but whatevs.

this is like "what's better: quadrant dub or quadrant q1.1?" WHY CHOOSE. except you still found the wrong choice by slagging the tikiman showcase ;)

ps q1.1

pretty obvious that the chain reaction stuff was their experimental off-shoot, for headphones not dancefloors, but even so i could see vainqueur's 'solanus' getting thrown into a techno set without a blink. that elevations cd is one of the best things on c.r. i think

hell, substance and fluxion too

lots of the 12s work really well on the dancefloor - "emerge", "erosion 1", "no stunts", the ridis 12", "resilient 1.1" etc etc. i guess the cd releases allowed producers to really stretch out and get dubbier and more ambient. was listening to the various artists album the other night, i could dance to that shit, sleep to it, dance and sleep at the same time, whatever - so nice! someone should do a cr cd poll or something.

i like chain reaction more than basic channel, but they are both great obviously.

i really love how loud and brash the open 909 hats are on alot of this stuff, like it's the one absolute, physical thing holding down all this inner space noise

substance does some great stuff like that with the clave sounds instead of the hats, same idea though. It's def. the real anchor for almost everything, refreshingly backwards

It's an especially nice contrast with most of what's coming out these days, what with the fad for really short, clipped, ultra-restrained hi-hat sounds, hardly any hi-end hiss to modern techno AT ALL.

I always thought the bassline on 'what a mistry' sounded like it was being played on a tuba. It's kind of brassy sounding isn't it.

so I was playing 'round one - I'm your brother' in my room today and my roomate came in and took a listen and pointed out that the lyrics of that song are from an Isley Brother's tune: Caravan of Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6gmrM6C8O0

wow!

holy shit! i wonder about new day.

wild. its like they "sampled" the chorus. i wonder if the verses are from anything? gotta say that as much as i love the isleys, the main street version is far superior ;)

;_;

organizing CDs today and i noticed that my BC compilation CD is missing. the metal tin is there, but there's nothing in it!

six months ago when my monolake CD cracked into pieces i freaked out and took all of the discs out. then i put them in empty jewel cases (these pile up like crazy because i keep all of my CDs in plastic sleeves). later i got some plastic CD sleeves and put them in those. i think maybe i didn't take out the BC CD and threw it out w/ the jewel cases when i did my monthly "throw out all the jewel cases" sweep.

either that or it's misfiled somewhere among either 1000s of plastic sleeves or 100s of digipaks ...

haha omg porter ricks "spoiled" (force inc.) neverending subaquatic tunnel of disco house heaven

ysi

also: is "symbiotics" (porter ricks vs techno animal) any good?

i'm inclined to think: no, not really

moi non plus. re:ysi, I wish I had casually digitized my vinly over time... saying goodbye to the bulk of it in one sitting. loss will make me better !

interestingly some artists stay w/out question (alphabetically so far: air liquide, juan atkins, daniel bell)

I are serious cat. bye, bartz & bicknell! see you in another life, beltram & baxter!

dude you can't get rid of blake baxter records. wtf.

oh I'm the first one to be surprised believe me. or I had the wrong 10 bb records.

Now on Beatport, if anyone didn't know...

ps i found my basic channel cd

:-]

also: is "symbiotics" (porter ricks vs techno animal) any good?

i'm inclined to think: no, not really

it's, uh, not as bad as you might think? i thought it was alright at a time when i was way more into PR than techno animal.

saw bb dj in glasgow about five years ago, he was the debut guest dj at a friend's (short-lived) club night - his set stripped the paint off the walls, people were going b-a-n-a-n-a-s

bb?

blake baxter. think I last saw him at the moog club in bcn about 5 years ago too. way too loud!

I bought symbiotics a couple months ago, granted, I think I would have obviously preferred have found biokinetics at the store that day, but nevertheless it's pretty good, although a bit unmemorable and a bit dry. I've taken to liking the techno animal stuff a bit more (and am a much bigger PR fan as well), but it is pretty good.

I haven't listened to "Symbiotics" in ages, but I was very underwhelmed by it at the time. It's got a couple of good PR tracks, but take a pass on the TA stuff.

"Spoiled" rules and the entire "Porter Ricks" album is criminally underrated. I find Koener's longer ambient album a bit tough to take in one sitting, but this album strikes a great balance between stuff with beats and without.

'the köner experiment' is underrated

i like the porter ricks remix of low. i don't remember anything else about that remix album, though.

did anyone try the beatport mp3s/wavs? does the remastering make much difference? i see they're now available more affordably here:

http://www.digital-tunes.net/labels/basic_channel/

A lot of this stuff is on bleep now, too.

It's on Amazon, too, even.

http://basicchannel.com/item/BCD-2

One of the quintessential electronic music compilations of all time. Basic Channel BCD-2 features full length versions of six of the label’s landmark club tracks released on vinyl between 1993 and 1995. From today’s perspective, in this open sound much of the later Rhythm & Sound imprint (as released on Rhythm & Sound: s/t) with its echo-heavy atmospheric density was already layed out here.

* Enforcement
* Phylyps Trak
* Inversion
* Octagon
* Octaedre
* Phylyps Trak II/II

BCD-2 (CD) 2008

no metal box no credibility.

paper spindle at least?

i wonder if this one will be mastered really quiet.

oh i went and picked up "symbiotics" because of the revive ... not bad! better than i thought, much like i was advised.

first impressions:

1) a couple of pretty great porter ricks tracks in the dirty modulated static acid house vein of "port of call"

2) an incredible ambient isolation track called "phosphoric". just deep bass pulses and echoey parking garage ambiance. field recordings from an abandoned space station.

3) techno animal tracks sounding very fresh in light of shackleton and whatnot.

Through some anonymous Hardwax-distributed/connected producer:
http://hardwax.com/10001/

This shit sounds smokin' hot.

monolake 'hong kong' reissued

http://www.monolake.de/releases/ml-000.html

BASIC CHANNEL: Basic Channel 2 CD (BCD 002CD) 17.00
The first CD compilation of Basic Channel releases from 1995 became one of the quintessential electronic music compilations of all time. Now, in a total surprise move, a companion CD, Basic Channel 2, has been released -- featuring full-length versions of six of the label's landmark club tracks released on vinyl between 1993 and 1995. From today's perspective, you can see and hear much of the later Rhythm & Sound style, with its echo-heavy atmospheric density, already laid out to perfection here. Basic Channel is the minimal techno production team and record label, composed of Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus, that originated in Berlin, Germany in 1993. They released a classic series of 9 iconic 12" records in the mid-'90s, and this CD compilation of material is taken from those 12"s. Featured here, on CD for the first time, are some of the most legendary electronic music tracks of all time: "Enforcement," "Phylyps Trak," "Inversion," "Octagon," "Octaedre," and "Phylyps Trak II/II." Stylistically, Basic Channel creates their own sub-genre of Detroit techno; slowly developing pulsations and abstractions with a heavy emphasis on post-dub processed crackles, blips and hiss -- the word "seminal" was invented for moments just like this.

Please just do a complete set of full-length BC 12"s and the Basic Reshape tracks on CDs.

you can download the complete BC 12" discog from Other Music, etc.

anyone know much about the moritz van oswald trio?

just picked up the main street comp, completely brilliant and I dont know how ive managed to be a BC fan for so long and managed to miss it. I was kind of hoping it would all be fruity garage numbers but the whole package slays

anticipating the Moritz von Oswald Trio

xp: aye. for more Fruity Von Owswald numbers, check his collaborations with Blake Baxter

the A2 and B3 on the new demdike stare album sample from "biokinetics" and "hongkong"

anybody heard this yet?

http://www.honestjons.com/label.php?pid=36607

yes, it's really, really good

so much love for this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYL3o6hHzJo

For lack of a better place to put this:

Type records has reissued the Porter Ricks s/t on vinyl, to be on CD shortly. I was trying to not buy any new vinyl early this year, but this is selling out fast :/

It's nowhere near as good as Biokinetics if that helps!

S/T essential for "spoiled" at least

I may have confused it with Biokinetics! You are correct.

I had a double point of confusion: it is Biokinetics that is reissued. Which is good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuyrzxJQd9c

is there a legit place to PURCHASE the full length tunes from BC and M-series in a lossless file format? Hardwax doesnt f/w selling digital files, afaict (wouldn't necessarily expect them too anyway, to some extent.
the files i see elsewhere at boomkat and such,.. I am concerned they are all from needledrops or something equally dubious.

(((not super interested in getting into strawman debates with real techno headz about *format* but i'd give it a go)))

hardwax DOES sell digital

http://hardwax.com/basic-channel/?paginate_by=50

click "show downloads"

oh shi

Oh wow thank u, mh!!

no download of lyot, wonder why ... does tresor have rights to that one?

remembered I have the "arrange and process" mix on my phone. it is still the best thing.

otm, that comp is what made me realize that this stuff is best heard mixed

that comp never really clicked with me, had the same issues with it that i did w/ hawtin's decks fx 909 mixes ... not bad per se, but a bit bland compared to the originals

the originals are just such monoliths, the seamless ableton mixing kind of digests them down into much mushier fare

yeah but it plays like three of them at once and it's like a swirling intenseness

i enjoy the mix and the monoliths. the individual tracks are what got me into basic channel, though

monoliths?

just using tlg's lingo

sometimes i just gotta soak my brain in this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DjRiI1jQGA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nhEfxnYj9c

There's a new BC 12", with some old, unreleased (and pretty amazing) tracks on it

http://basicchannel.com/item/BC-CD

Q-Loop (Full length) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-B96EvUB9Q

Whaaaaaaaaaaat?

http://www.factmag.com/2016/10/12/porter-ricks-shadow-boat-ep-tresor-announced/

new porter ricks is good

Fluxion's "Vibrant Forms III" sounds exactly like I and II, listening to it is like being stuck in a time warp where the clock never strikes Jan 1, 2001.

no metal box no credibility.

― jed_, Saturday, May 24, 2008 10:13 AM (eight years ago)

https://hardwax.com/24397/various-artists/compiled/

lol. i remember seeing those in shops and snootily dismissing them. who on earth would buy a COMPACT DISC of such music

My Maurizio metal box rusted and warped, cracking the cd center :( Luckily I managed to digitize the thing.

my dudes

https://hardwax.com/00090/vainqueur/reductions-1995-1997/

considering challenging conventional wisdom and doing a poll of the chain reaction compact disc releases

why not?

do it up

chain reaction, a sublabel of basic channel: best compact disc release

tada

Someone left a copy of their screenplay at the record store????????? pic.twitter.com/xHFz9IUWYF

— karina unleashed (@karinasoni) November 18, 2018

Would definitely watch this film

I screamed reading the entire thing. The main villian in the story is someone who goes by the online username “aphextriplet85”

— karina unleashed (@karinasoni) November 18, 2018

I couldn't resist

omgggg

ha amazing

Yes, I enjoy a good "dub techno" track every now and then.

I consider Yagya to be dub techno’s version of, like, Tycho or someone, but I listened to the Rhythm of Snow the other day and its soothing qualities appealed to me.

"rigning" is pretty nice

I listened to the Round One to Round Five/Main Street Records comp today and this track was a huge standout, like super dubby minimal techno with muted little wisps of funk and house, I wish more of their stuff sounded exactly like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBHtjJtVcMA

:)

Those four Round Four / Round Five tracks are colossal. And yeah, Find a Way the most among them.

I spent 3 hours last night listening to the entire Rhythm & Sound label output (excluding the Burial Mix stuff) and it's... fine? A lot of it is just soooooo slow, like 60bpm, it feels v v loose and sparse and I am not quite getting this whole "omg so influential, set the blueprint for a whole generation of techno" type stuff.

I also wish more stuff sounded like "Find a Way", it seems like a bit of an outlier in the BC universe and they don't seem to have made a whole lot that sounds like it

"omg so influential, set the blueprint for a whole generation of techno"

that more applies to Basic Channel, no?

Don't get me wrong, Rhythm & Sound / Burial Mix was influential for sure but it was the BC stuff that set a blueprint that is still getting rinsed to this day.

The Burial Mix releases absolutely RULE so if you haven't explored those (it was hard to tell from your posts) you are in for a massive treat.

its so lame to talk about "proper bass" but R&S with the proper bass feels dense and almost unbearably heavy

Do you know this one, Stevie?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJVdrU5R1Qk

I think it’s too easy to take Maurizio and Basic Channel et al for granted given all the imitators that followed. The intersection of dub and techno is, for me, one of the great innovations in modern music. Rhythm & Sound’s music somehow doesn’t sound exactly like techno, and doesn’t sound exactly like dub, but the combination of the two captures most of the things I love about those styles. I guess what I mean is that as cool as the concept is on paper, the application of the idea has always, for me, exceeded those expectations, which is an amazing thing that never happens.

And yeah that Faith 12" jed posted has been on my wantlist for a while. Guess there are no plans to reissue any of that stuff

idiotic opinion alert: to me it feels like an inordinate amount of BC imitators never got past "radiance" and were hellbent on making endless watered down false vibes. idk. yr typical token "b2 heres my dubby techno track" is the equiv of yr typical token downtempo/trip-hop track from 20-25 years back.

I’m not sure if this is what you were getting at exactly, but your post got me thinking about the dub techno continuum as compared to trip hop and I started wondering things like: Did trip hop ever even have its own Basic Channel or was it too easy to digest from the get-go? I guess my knee-jerk answer would be early Ninja Tune and Shadow records acts like DJ Food and Hedfunk: Less accessible acts who had a singular vision and whose work was hard enough to find that they gained a kind of cult like status.

the thing is, i don't like massive attack at all... but either them or portishead would be a good answer! anybody remember supreme beings of leisure? ick!

i believe i am conflating trip-hop with "blunted beats" or what have you... yeah i think dj food's super austere jazz brakes stuff is a good answer.

my ex was v v into trip hop in the 90s and I recently spent a bit of time acquainting myself with a bunch of the acts that were big at the time but have not had much lasting power (Sneaker Pimps, Lamb, Hooverphonic, Morcheeba, etc) and a lot of it felt incredibly derivative/formulaic/uninspired, like v v buzz-chasing, I don't think I realized the extent to which it was a total fad

I don't think Lamb belongs in that group :(

Morcheeba though were clearly worthless at the time

My buddy and i found a whole cache of chain reaction 12s last week and i have been fully immersed. Hadnt ever really gotten much more than a cursory listen to this stuff before and now im lovin it

Favorites so far are hallucinator's kilimanjaro, porter ricks's nautical dub, and vladislav's ranta

wow, where was this?

gah 69, are you in the east bay SF area perchance? One of my local stores got in a huge buy of dope black country techno and FACT deep house stuff and yeah lots of BC and CR

lol don’t know how ‘gah’ got there

yep im in oakland -- the prices are *deece* if not screamers, but man it is so sick to get so much stuff in one shot, and without paying $30 apiece shipping from germany

i got a couple UR, metroplex, and peacefrog things too...

this music has always been near me but not my main focus, and now im diving in and its wild how deep the waters are. reminds me of my jazz knowledge 15yr ago when i was just stacking mid-70s muse and mainstream records with mtume on them :)

PETE

Ranta is incredible ofc, all time

the one I heard first was Huone, just as good

I remember there was some long gone DJ/techno store here in town w/a listening station and one day in 1999 I went through a ton of stuff and found it, immediately hooked

also see the 1st three Pole releases for adjacent awesomeness

sick

WHATS UP SLEEVE

I've heard some of these early BC 12"s have been reissued but can't seem to find any info outside of Hardwax. Hoping there is a US distro for these. Was assuming Bleep but not seeing anything

https://www.discoesencia.com/a-guide-to-basic-channel-records/

Boomkat had them but have sold out already

I adore my Maurizio cd.

Boomkat had them but have sold out already

― I am using your worlds, Saturday, February 25, 2023 11:27 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ah, ok, thanks. Oh well. I'll never understand the motivation behind reissuing something only to have it go immediately out of print

i'm pretty sure they will repress them again shortly. it is often hard to know what the actual demand is and always better to under-press. Phonica and Rub A Dub still have copies.

got some more from the same haul yesterday!!!

six more chain reactions (holy shit huone), six maurizios from the 2000s remasters, a basic channel and another peacefrog just for fun. the chain reactions are just exactly my vibe right now, and im enjoying the maurizios right now too. i spent all day tooling around looking for records and came up almost completely empty, but then decided to get a slice of pizza and stopped by econo jam again to see if they had refreshed the techno boxes AND THEY HAD. fallow digging morning redeemed.

hahaha also just seeing my friend karina's tweet upthread

did she ever find out more about that whole deal?

lol lemme ask

@josiahhughes is this your screenplay

— Ash Carter (@ashcarter) November 19, 2018

LMAO YES

— jos (@josiahhughes) November 19, 2018

It was made into a movie!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8FCkYHPdX4

i think that tweet was a joke

tweet's a joke. the short film is uh, something

essential mix here imho
https://soundcloud.com/funky_jeff/chain-reactions

Either that link is broken or Soundcloud is down. Would be interested to hear a good mix of Chain Reaction releases, which I don't know nearly as well as the Basic Channel material

works for me

I'll have to check that one out. The mix by Scion (Vainqueur/Substance) that was released on cd as Arrange and Process is pretty good but always seemed a little sterile? I'm not sure if it was the choice to make it 100% Basic Channel material did that

working for me now, too. Helical Scan!

by far one of my favorites in the Chain Reaction catalog:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxaY8EjX74A

YSI plz? CD is long out of print and I guess there was a digital reissue 15 years ago, but not on Bandcamp...

*Decay Product* is magnificent, end-to-end.

Paul St Hilaire / Tikiman is getting a Vol. 1 overview next week. Wire just put out a nice overview of their own: https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/wire-playlist-paul-st-hilaire

God, those Round Four and Five tracks

I'm finally going deep into Basic Channel land.

So far the classic BC stuff is mind-blowing, and I've listened to most of the Moritz von Oswald Trio records. Each one wears out their welcome after a bit, but I love the concept and I'm kinda jealous of getting to make records like this that are essentially live.

The Tony Allen one is mostly great (because of Tony Allen), and I haven't circled back to the most recent one with Laurel Halo, which I listened to a bunch when it came out and love.

I also rinsed the records Mark Ernestus did with Ndagga Rhythm Force a few years back. I guess next I need to delve into the Rhythm & Sound and Maurizio stuff?

yes

i burned out on the Maurizio 12s (i might be about ready to dive back in again) but Rhythm & Sound stuff is eternal.

Rhythm & Sound stuff is just some of the best music ever made, really.

Paul St. Hilaire new album ("Tikiman vol. 1") is great.

I'm sorry to report that I just can't hang with the Rhythm & Sound material. For me it tilts too far into the dub references, except without any of variation and amazing playing that comes from dubbing out a live band. The bass pressure is impressive and the vocals are great but it really just makes me want to put on a Scientist record.

The BC stuff is still a revelation though. And I enjoyed going through this: https://ra.co/features/3365

you listened to this comp too, right? It’s a lot murkier and odder than the other R&S stuff

https://www.discogs.com/master/506510-Rhythm-Sound-Rhythm-Sound

isn’t that “the other rhythm and sound stuff” mixed together?

omg irritating ilx0r “pipecock” commented on that discogs page.

that's the comp i've listened to over and over again, it's unmixed.

the "see mi yah" remixes are really good

isn’t that “the other rhythm and sound stuff” mixed together?

well “not like it at all” is too strong, but it’s a different vibe 😎

omg irritating ilx0r “pipecock” commented on that discogs page.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, May 25, 2023 3:31 PM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

haha yeah and he's just as pompous and annoying there as he was on ILM

that is his brand

my favorite r&s is the mango drive remix, really versatile piece of dub techhno not quite like anything else and quite good for “switching the vibe”

i also like the tikiman showcase cd a lot, but overall tend to agree with jordan that the r&s stuff is a bit too montonous.

not sure the later stuff makes me want to put on a scientist record - imo it’s closer to something like early demdike stare, i really think of it as a sort of dark ambient pretending to be / built on top of dub techno

“later” was the wrong term, i mean the r&s stuff after mango drive and showcase (mid period?)

the later stuff i guess is really the second set of burial mix releases (see mi yah, king in my empire etc) which i think are really great in their own way, which is not so much a dub techno way but more of an effort to make a good background for the vocalists that is also compatible with electronic music but is not some sort of laswellian frankenstein

laswellian frankenstein

haha love this

I love Roll Off / B so much. vast broken sheared off flotsam, the size of planets, meeting, rebounding, complaining, reconciling, breaking apart, recombining

dark ambient on top o dub techno is otm for that stuff. it's pure mood music set to all dark colors.

Listened to a bunch of R&S today including that comp and I do like the instrumental stuff more, even though the vocalists are great in their own right.

I still think that the more it leans into dub reggae tropes (skanking organ chords, basslines, cross-sticks) the weaker it gets. But the Demdike Stare and dark ambient references make sense to me, I love all the weird surface noise loops. Also still think it's more effective when they apply dub techniques to different vocabularies, although I bet the R&S records sound crazy on a soundsystem.

browsing through this thread and the ra piece and thinking i’d never listened to any of this congeries of dub and techno i realised (listening to it now) that i actually *bought* the rhythm and sound tikiman showcase comp when it came out. it never really blew me away at the time but it’s v nice to revisit.

idk, the vocal r&s stuff on decent speakers at a decent volume achieves a level of absolutely monumental dread that i find undeniable, it really casts a spell that is sustained by the repetition and minimalism, dub tropes don't detract from that for me because it is dub music. the see mi yah remixes are good, but they're something totally different

yeah i was going to say … imo a close listen of the see mi yah remixes tells you more about the remixers than it does about r&s

and i agree with karl. the burial mix stuff is not just influenced by reggae, it IS reggae

of course the remixes tell you more about the remixers than r&s! they take the minimalism and turn it into dance music. soundstream one is so enjoyably bouncy.

i don't hear dread in either "king in my empire" or "queen in my empire", i hear spiritual triumph and jubilation. not sure which of the other vocal tracks might feel more dread-y. but reading back what you said, i get you on the volume and the singular presence of the sound, it's very powerful.

It's a me thing, once you really get into dub territory I miss all the beautiful & detailed drumming (and bass playing) that's as much a part of the appeal for me as the dub mixing. But I know this has its own thing, it's cool.

i feel you on liking 'actual' dub more than these records tbr

the dread is in the suffocatingly thick prescence of the sound, the power comes from how methodically it rolls out and sets a scene that stays still as it moves. in 'king in my empire' the lyrics describe the whole world in jah's hand but the vocals don't rejoice, they leer and promise a comeuppance, 'i'm like a burning fire, leave me you old vampire'

damn, nice read. there is definitely comeuppance in it. i love that track to pieces. campbell is so amazing on it.

i feel like the vocal versions of the see mi yah riddim are generally more "dread" than the king in my empire version

i forget exactly which it is but one of the remixes is really sparse and scary. maybe the sleeparchive "dem never know" mix?

the one about the lover cheating with the best friend, i can't remember the title, that one i remember feeling spooky, a little like a ghost story.

the carl craig "poor people must work" is pretty haunting imo.

that carl craig remix is stunning and eerie, also love the sleeparchive. despite both being dated by some clicky 00's percussion, that might just be my hangup though

yeah pretty much all of those remixes sound a little dated tbf

back in style in five years, when mnml revival happens

i'm fine with that just please no clicks this time

how about some roland hand claps?

eternal

Definitely get that sense of dread from Rod of Iron’s vocals on Lightning Storm

I think Pole is the closest comparison to sound the Basic Channel guys achieved with R&S, but even more faded, degraded and glitchy.

the dubplates & mastering-centered group of the time