The Download Future Loops Deep Dub Techno Diaries

Techno was the outcome of German experimentation that Americans imported. Americans then exported techno to Germany, offering ice to Eskimos, basically, before Germany started offering techno back to the Americans. This process has actually been duplicated around 123,877 times given that 1990. Dub techno takes that migratory pattern and saturates it with studio processes inherited from Jamaica.

The standard story of dub techno is therefore: Moritz Von Oswald and his previous production partner Mark Ernestus chose, eventually in the early 90s, that what techno a category still in it's brief shorts, if not total infancy needed was a dosage of dub's echoplexed studio trickery to exploit the spaces between the staccato jackhammer of the ever present kickdrum.

With their Chain Response imprint, they took it to brand-new levels. We'll get back to them soon. Now, unfortunately, a lot of dub techno out there is incredibly dull greyscale, unadventurous, absolutely and literally generic. It must appear simple to make because after all, all you require is the a submerged kickdrum, a couple of clanking chords extended pointlessly out into arching waves of unmoving, unfeeling nothingness, and maybe the odd nab of worn out melodica, snaking around like a cobra that frantically needs to be put out of its misery.

A Bullshitter's Guide to Dub Techno

Dub Techno Mix #114 by Sound Territory - Mixcloud

As it's music that's purposefully wandering glacially, but still wandering nonetheless it is borderline impossible to find really terrible handles it. Because method, it's a bit like ambient. In reality, thinking of dub techno as a cousin, or step-brother, of ambient is a helpful method of framing things.

The Facts About Dub Techno - Riemann Kollektion Uncovered

It's aural wallpaper. It is placid, unquestioning, deeply relaxing.  Look At This Piece  is recreation of the somnambulance of the womb, generally. Therefore is dub techno. The best dub techno is noticeably unshowy, never ever overreaching, never trying to wow or stun. That it can and does both stun and wow is a testament to the power of subtlety.

It's an ideal example of the power of spatiality: every element in the mix is given breathing time and, accordingly, takes on a sense of the natural. It's a work of architectural, structural, and musical genius. As the genre wouldn't exist as we understand it without Von Oswald and Ernestus, we should spend a little time looking at their masterpieces and why they work.