Some of my favorite songs are dub techno tracks. The early Basic Channel records and the Maurizo mix of “Dominas”——alongside many others——formed some of my earliest impressions of what techno could be. In all honesty, it probably stretches back to some of my earliest musical memories listening to Pink Floyd’s “Run Like Hell” over and over as a kid. The delay affects on the guitars are very proto-dub-techno.
Dub music used to be something I loved but couldn’t quite play. “Dub techno” was a style that seemed done to death in the 2010s and it felt like there wasn’t much else interesting to be said. Sure, I loved listening, but it was for me and my own at-home listening, not really right for the floor. But recently, it feels like dub techniques and sounds have been finding their way back into tracks built for peak time. I love it, and in my eyes, it represents something greater than a stylistic shift or a change in tastes on the dancefloor: it’s a rebellion against the oppressive “refinement aesthetics” that dominate so much of our culture today.
By “refinement aesthetics,” I simply mean the design language that dominates the visual, sonic, and tactile feel of so much of what we consume in culture today. It’s the sanding off of all edges, imperfections, or unpredictability in something, often driven by data-analysis or algorithmic approaches to curation.
It’s what has led us to put faith in the algorithm over our own intuition when looking for something new. It’s what has led movies and TV shows to look the way they do, where every pixel can be captured——and then corrected——perfectly. It’s what has led so many things in our lives to take on this “market-tested-and-endlessly-focus-grouped-but-completely-devoid-of-soul” feeling that ROI-maximizing businesspeople masquerading as cultural tastemakers continually produce and promote. It’s tough to put into words, but if you see it, you undoubtedly know what I’m talking about. If you’ve felt it in the books, movies, fashion, music——even furniture——you buy, I’m sure this doesn’t sound crazy to you.
Dub approaches and dub techniques stand in defiance of this attitude of soulless refinement and optimization. Dub music is not rooted in auto-filter settings or algorithmic automation curves. Dub techniques, true dub-techniques——and by this I mean the ones thoroughly indebted to the likes of King Tubby, Lee Perry, and the other Jamaican originators of this music——are all the work of a human being. It’s a hand on every filter move, every reverb send, every delay throw. And it’s messy. It’s imperfect. There are all kinds of mistakes and happy accidents along the way that make the music breathe and feel full of life and soul.
I’ve always felt that techno can point the way forward for music and other artistic disciplines, especially now when culture seems to endlessly recycle itself. Techno is a genre steeped in aesthetic futurism with an influence that radiates out into fashion, design, sculpture, architecture, photography, and so much more. So I’m very heartened by this shift towards dub and an “anti-refinement” spirit in the music right now. It’s something I am pushing for alongside many other techno artists. It’s something I hope others will pick up and follow in their life and practices, no matter what art form or design discipline they work in.
Kraftwerk talked a lot about the “man-machine” or how music and technology could provide a blueprint for how humans and machines could combine forces to create something greater. I still have hope for this idea, but when we let the quest for data-driven refinement cloud our vision, we lose sight of who’s in the driver’s seat: us or the machines. But with dub and dub techniques back front and center in techno’s musical dialogue, it helps point the way to a new ideal, where we are in control of the machines——not the other way around——with all our imperfect grit and soul shining through.
-Holden
New tracks shared to my page here:
Tim Baker - M-Gruv
Perfectly stripped back drive on this one from Tim Baker. Killer chords, killer claps, toms ratcheting up the drama. Played this one in the Voltage mix. 1998.
Creeper - Undulator 23
Classic tune from Creeper, the driving bassline on this one is just perfectly restrained and menacing. Love the dramatic break too. 1996.
Linus Wang - Untitled
Bassline-driven, lots of funk and nice atmospherics, this one by Linus Wang is a recent find I’m really digging. Played it in the Voltage mix. Tobias Von Hofsten recently posted the digital of this file to his Bandcamp page too (the track was originally released on his Illegal label). 2002.
Octave One - Terraforming
Really special track for me—one of my best friends showed me this and I remember listening to it on repeat out of the speaker on my iPhone on the street as I walked home. The chords, the string sample, the clap line...all so simple but there’s so much soul and feeling. I played this one towards the end of the Voltage mix and I wanted to play it as a way to shift the emotion and feel of the mix after deliberately trying to push things off the rails a bit. To me, this one will always sound like walking home on a cold night in New York City. 1995.
Olga+Jozef - Untitled
Tightly wound Slovakian techno from Olga+Jozef (also behind the Kre track posted a few weeks back). Lots of nice crunch and texture on this one, really digging the way the meaner synth sound plays off of the almost flute-like, barely-there atmosphere sounds in the back of the mix. 1999.
3ST Vs. Dash – Are You Alan
Really nicely layered track from 3ST (aka DJ Dry) and Dash—super simple synth motif but the hi hats and background samples are so nicely handled. Lots of unstable rhythms stacked on top of each other to drive the tension higher and higher. 1999.
Per Condelius - Night Cap
Bassline driven and lots of funk—goes straight to it on this one. Digging the classic structure: driving bassline with an A and B phrase paired with some dramatic chords for more tension. Definitely starts to show some of the more turn-of-the-millenium sound design too. 2002.
Dash - Dawn to Reality
Super restrained and locked in. This one from Dash is steeped in mood—the way the high end synth comes in and out of view with super subtle filter moves provides just enough to keep you guessing throughout the track. 2001.
Ian Void – Restraint
Nice mix of bleeps and atmospherics with this one from Ian Void. Great drum work as well, the way that open hat leads into the clap on the downbeat is super simple yet really distinct in its feel. 2001.
Crimson - Man Unknown
Hypnotic percussive track from Crimson. Great touch, there’s so few elements but nothing feels missing, nothing feels out of place. Such a nice emphasis on the final off beat of the percussive phrase. 1998.