the way

Been gone awhile! A solid week of partying with some of my best friends in a beautiful town in Ohio set me back a bit, but now I am back in San Francisco and ready to keep giving the goods.

There's been a lot of debate going on recently about the current state of the genre known as dub-techno, a sound pioneered by Basic Channel and the artists of Chain Reaction, now being taken up by such followers as the boys over at Echocord and Modern Love. Many have grown to think of the genre as "samey," consisting mostly of atmospheric ambient hiss, booming-yet-buried kicks, synth swells here and there, and climaxes much too minute for any sort of dance floor. In other words, the genre's detractors have found that the powerful music of Mark Ernestus and Moritz von Oswald has plateaued into a genre that is completely uninteresting and stuck in the musical signs of being dub-techno, rather than expanding the genre's sonic and dancefloor capabilities. While I agree with this negative assessment in some ways-- much too much same-old shit has come out in the past few years-- I still believe that there are some great artists doing things with the genre, and the best of them is undoubtedly Luke Hess.

Hess' new album Light in the Dark is exemplary of a dub-techno album that doesn't simply rely on formula. Rather, there is a great amount of variation, with tracks ranging from the dark, lush ambient of "Reflections" to the Omar-S-like techno syncopations of "The Way." While there is certainly a mood contained within the album, and is isn't necessarily a sunshiney one, the album as a whole is a breath of fresh air, with enough swelling, delayed synths to keep the dub-techno purists happy and enough pounding grooves to keep the Detroit tech-heads happy. Releasing one of the great albums of 2009, Hess is most definitely among the more interesting and precision-oriented producers out there. Check out his summer podcast from last year on MNML SSGS, too-- it is quite nice.

Luke Hess- The Way

More coming at you later tonight!

waterways

For some reason, around fall, I get embroiled in serious dub-techno vibes in a way that doesn't happen during any other season. Ah, the mystery. But as a result, I've been digging through my records and have two new vinyl rips for you today!

First, we have the title track from Gez Varley's 2001 album on Force Inc., Bayou Paradis. "Bayou Paradis" is a BC-style techno track, rolling at a 128-bpm pace with deep kicks, an endlessly repeating bass-line, washed-out echoey chords with oft-changing levels, subtle backing drones that add a nice warmth, and hi-frequency watery whooshes. A real forgotten gem of minimal techno, this is perhaps Varley's best work-- most certainly better than anything he did in LFO. Highly recommended!

Gez Varley- Bayou Paradis



Next up, a track from the infamous Hallucinator. "Goldcoast" is a 135-bpm techno bit with whirling pseudo-vocal loops, chimes, deep kicks and hypnotic secondary percussion, and so many hi-frequency elements that the listener is lost in a sea of whooshes, subtle wave-like noises, sonar blips and so on. A killer from one of those Chain Reaction groups that deserves a LOT more love. Real tough shit!

Hallucinator- Goldcoast

Tomorrow, housin' in up.

floating world

(photo by F.D. Rahman)

So, despite all of my house and disco leanings of the past couple of weeks, I've also spent a large amount of time listening to the minimal, dubby techno found on Basic Channel's Chain Reaction label. Among the various artists with releases on the label, the Grecian Fluxion is probably my favorite. With tracks that range from more straightforward dub techno to dreamy ambient soundscapes (and everything in between), Fluxion is truly an artist who needs more recognition, particularly given the current penchant for releases on the Modern Love imprint. "Multidirectional I" has a heavy kick and writhing bass that provides forward movement against mid-level, delayed organ synths and hi-frequency, highly-nuanced washes. Weird descending lines, very low in the mix, provide a hallucinatory quality to the whole track that is quite something. Off of one of my most-listened to albums during the past year, Bipolar Defect. Highly recommended!

Fluxion- Multidirectional I

Tomorrow, some deep stuff from Sasse.