basic channel/maurizio/chain reaction, s&d

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?