Echologist – Subterranean 7.7

                Echologist takes dub to the next level: dub ambience. There is little to no percussion on here. What guides you is filtered bass and ambience. Only a few clicks occasionally rear their heads through the heavy bass which makes up the entire album. Few have ventured out this far into dub ambience. Brendon Moeller knows that even Basic Channel allowed a high hat or kick drum here and there. 

                I like the level of dedication present here. Deliberate efforts are made (successfully) to ensure the album remains a coherent whole. Even song shows its own character, no mean feat considering the same sounds are cycled over and over again. With each new song we’re presented with a different approach to the same sounds. “Subterranean” introduces us to the palette being used for all seven songs. 

                What each song does with those sounds is the amazing part. Some are blurred into near-oblivion (see “Lunar Cycle”). Others transform into a weird version of the chicken dance (see “Deliberate” for Brendon’s sense of humor). The album builds and declines based off of these bass rumblings. If I had to think of a close comparison to the sound I’d have to mention Basic Channel’s “Radiance” release but that one even included some beats. 

                Minimalism is a tough thing to pull off even with a full range of sounds. The limitations Brendon sets for himself here don’t appear to be limitations but rather perimeters to explore. It is a sound recommended for quiet surroundings.

Quantec – Unusual Signals 5.3

              Sven Schienhammer certainly has done a great deal of work in getting the sound right for this album. From the first track, you immediately hear the influence of “Basic Channel” bleeding through the sweet sounds. Upon further, deeper listening to the album I began to get a little disappointed. Though my first impression of this is positive, I can’t help but to feel this lends itself better to ‘background music’ rather than anything you’d deeply engage.

                Unusual Signals starts out strong, very strong with “Amanita Muscaria”. Slinging around, exploring new territory and doing some interesting panning, I want the rest of the album to be this strong. Most of it unfortunately fails in comparison. The other songs lack a certain hypnotic quality. Compared to other minimal dub acts, he fails to have a certain hook. Having something to bring the listener in, the way good minimal dub techno can. Again, I use Basic Channel. Though they use repetition a lot, there is a certain purpose to it. Here it just feels empty, feels false.

                Each song builds the same way. It dissipates in the same fashion. Yes, I know this is minimal, but had Sven employed a few different approaches, it might have paid off in a more interesting album. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have enough interesting things going on to explain 10 minute track lengths where little happens. I wanted to like this more than I did.

Moritz Von Oswald Trio – Vertical Ascent 8.6

Meshing together dub (a longtime favorite of Von Oswald’s), techno, and jazz into a tasty morsel. Really this could have ended up being one of those tacky cross-pollination wannabes, case in point ‘acid jazz’. Deftly avoiding this pratfall, this is an extremely tasteful affair. 

The percussion comes across crystal clear. Vladislav Delay provides the percussive elements, expanding his palette to include glasses and other unorthodox items. By using these sounds you get a very tactile feel throughout the entire album. It allows for a more relaxed feel. 

Keyboards are used minimally. Moritz plays it, and plays it well. Whether it is the first track’s emotive swells or the stately chords on the third, they fit into place with the percussion. Tones are arranged and mixed by Max Loderbauer. 

Overall, this might be Moritz’s reaction to the clinical techno sound he in part pioneered through Basic Channel, Rhythm and Sound, etc. The austere approach taken by so many artists probably bothers Moritz, like they took his style in vein. What he appears to be doing now is trying to make electronic feel alive by infusing it with a slight amount of jazz. 

Rarely does tasteful and techno ever belong in the same sentence. I really hope he continues with the project, and seeing them live is truly a sight to behold.  

Scion – Arrange and Process Basic Channel 7.8

Normally I dislike remix projects. They reek of egos run amok. Results of their egos usually disappoint, with the mixer thinking “Eh, whatever, I guess I’ll ride this guy’s coattails into fame”. Or the opposite reaction, which is worse, is when someone famous (like Thurston Moore) remixes some good obscure artist’s stuff into something far less interesting. It doesn’t sound good, it feels like charity, like aw, poor unpopular artist. Let me help you.

Scion proves that there are exceptions to the rule. Yeah, they might not be as popular as Basic Channel, but they are very familiar with their records. Part of this might be that the duo actually got released by a subsection of Basic Channel, Chain Reaction, the more accessible part of the Basic Channel empire. Together, they update and tweak each song you are no doubt obsessed with at this point. 

The mix is strong, they include a new song every 2 to 3 minutes, and it is smooth. Every transition is handled flawlessly, and the tracks are updated without eliminating that essence that made Basic Channel so special in the first place. Tempos are jacked up to a faster pace, to allow this to be more of dance music (not that Basic Channel ever discounted the joys of the dance floor).

Not only are the more obvious picks chosen (Enforcement always remained a pretty accessible track) but even that ambient joy of Radiance streams through these tracks. In fact, those two even meet to delirious effect in Part 6. 

Ultimately, this is a great mix and serves as a weird “best of” Basic Channel. Each track that made them legendary has been included. It starts out slow, builds up in the middle, and gradually eases the listener down. This is ideal for anyone intimidated by Basic Channel’s vast discography and wants a tastes of what they really are about. 

Deepchord Presents Echospace – Liumin 8.5

Rod Modell is one of the few people still working in Detroit. And who better than a Detroit-based techno dub artist to convey the weird feeling of living in a warped reality. 

With Liumin, he’s thrown off some of the Basic Channel copy-catting he’s previously been accused, even as one track is called “BCN Dub”. Actually that track ends up being one of the craziest tracks on the whole almost 80 minute album (for the purposes of this review, I will not critique the field recordings second disc). It has a heavy beat mixed with distorted horns trying in vain to get through the mix. Add to that little chords dancing around the field recordings and you have a mammoth dance track.

All of this has that same addictive quality. Field recordings can be fine by themselves, but whenever they are put into dance songs, it is usually out of humor or pretension. Here, neither one of those reasons holds true. Hearing the environment around the lurching, persistent beats just confirms how living and breathing each track is.

Even the pacing is perfect. You’d think that an 80 minute album would grow boring or contain fat, but you’d be wrong. Like Basic Channel, they use each element (including length) to their advantage. The bookends on the album provide an easing into the harder beats. 

Melody appears as well, showing the heart and soul of the humans behind this. “Firefly” has a beautiful, gorgeous melody behind the infectious rhythm. That rhythm only gets harder with the aptly named “Maglev”.  Maglev lives up to the train’s name, moving at some near-unreasonable speed.

I listen to a huge amount of dance music, probably an unhealthy amount. But this album really did it for me, for reasons I can’t fully explain. Rod just knew exactly what he was doing, there’s pure dance perfection here.