Pole – 1
1998
One of the most tactile dub techno albums ever made. The textural experience against the eardrum is one more akin to the staccato intricacy of IDM artists like Autechre and Aphex Twin than the soothing rounded tones the genre was known for. On this debut full length, the sound fields appear spartan at first, which helps amplify the strangeness of each discrete element in the mix. Throughout the album, these disparate pieces chase each other around the stereo field, often skittering up through pure treble while nebulous bass rumbles far below, an expanse of open, reverb-laden space in between. It moves from delicate to overwhelming without notice, constantly elusive and unpredictable. It’s one of the strangest early albums of the genre, but still one of the strongest.
• • •
Fluxion – Vibrant Forms
1999
Here’s another compilation passing flawlessly for a real-deal album experience, also originally released on the venerable Chain Reaction label. With these ten tracks, Fluxion unleashed a wild explosion of the genre, mastering the fundamentals as well as anyone else before while destroying the boundaries of dub techno as it was known. These tracks take the ascetic minimalist ethos to its extreme while simultaneously emphasizing the dubby, hotly psychedelic aspect of the music; it’s a vast open space of metallic beats, all swirling echo and aquatic reverb coloring in the gaps, dissolving the walls between concrete and imagined experience. Solid rhythms evaporate into a fine mist before sub bass kicks in, attracting it back like particulates to an electromagnet.
Like all the best minimal music, this set holds a dual nature. Heard with only half attention, half volume, Vibrant Forms could seem too barren, too repetitive, too basic; cranked up and fully facing the sound, it’s an overwhelming deluge of everything that makes dub techno the profoundly affecting music that it is.
• • •
Gas – Pop
2000
This album absolutely perfected a unique strain of dub techno that had been building alongside its more straightforward genetic cousin, helping pave the way for an entire subgenre’s flourishing over the next decade. Pop was the fourth and final (for seventeen years, at least) album from Gas, Wolfgang Voigt’s most well-known and influential project. That original four-album run saw his then-startling combination of compulsive 4/4 beats and psychedelic ambient music grow from an experiment to a well-oiled machine and then, in its final act, take flight into the upper atmosphere of sound. With this album, Voigt leaves the traditional sub-bass thump far below, mere echoes of its power pushing up through the cloudlike structure of these songs. In this subversion of both dub techno and ambient music, the peripheral sensory experience takes center stage, all the weird little barely-there details hovering on the edges of most dub productions suddenly pushed to the fore. The effect is staggering, a truly disorienting aural experience at proper volume; it feels like the walls of perception are not only pounding inward, but their very surfaces are swirling, crawling, scrambled beyond recognition.
When the final track hits that ecstatic moment and rides it out for nearly fifteen minutes, you’ll know exactly what I mean.
• • •
Jan Jelinek – Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records
2001
Jelinek approaches techno with a deeply curious, scientific attention to detail and structure, carving apart his influences to strip out what appeals to him, fashioning radically personal tracks out of existing tones and textures. He’s released albums built from the memories of krautrock and dusty radio pop and even radio plays, but on his full length debut under his real name, he draws from a toy box full of warm static-dusted jazz sounds. This is not to say that Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records feels in any way like jazz music; Jelinek merely uses the colors of his sample sources to paint something completely new. Throughout the album he combines these abstracted samples with then-groundbreaking glitch structures, in which digital “errors” compose some of the connective tissue of the music. The resulting sound, combining two now-dormant and vastly different planets of music, remains startlingly fresh to this day, largely thanks to his wide-open, deeply sensual songcraft. The floating, unpredictable track structures tend to snowball into urgency, each element locking into place at some point along the relaxed run times; before you know it, you’re nodding your head to a beat that at first seemed as abstract as a cloud formation. When looked at in this light, the album does share a kind of kinship with certain chill jazz monuments like In A Silent Way or even the ubiquitous Kind of Blue: if it’s turned on as background music, it’ll quickly become rapt-attention listening as the volume is turned up, its cavernous bass hitting like the pulse of a giant rising out of slumber. Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records may stretch the definition of dub techno, but it affects the listener as deeply and spiritually as any of the genre’s best.
• • •
Vladislav Delay – Anima
2001
Many landmark techno albums feel like one continuous slab of otherworldly music; Anima actually is one hourlong piece flowing seamlessly through several movements that are only visible in hindsight. First-time listeners might be intimidated by the immensity of feel and approach, the song slowly taking form over several minutes before reaching anything recognizably “techno.” I’ve always thought of Anima as some giant cyberpunk dragon, slowly coming to life in fits and starts over a full hour, unfurling its neon flecked wings in the dark. But instead of ending in a roar, the album recedes into a whisper before disappearing into the clouds. It’s utterly unlike anything else here.
• • •
Rhythm & Sound – Rhythm & Sound
2001
Within just a few years, Basic Channel’s Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus realized that they’d perfected their original sound and quickly moved on to a new project called Rhythm & Sound. This is the album that brought the ‘dub’ in dub techno to the forefront, looping the genre back in on its inspiration to spectacular hybrid success. While some heads prefer the many vocal features of Rhythm & Sound, which collectively push the beating heart of this inspiration into the spotlight, I reserve my deepest love for their self titled compilation. It collects some of the deepest, most cavernous dub techno songs rendered in rubbery, massive bass tones and highlights an atmospheric attention to the subtly looping details. A lone vocal cut enters this mix on the 9 minute centerpiece “Smile,” reminding us of the very real humans behind such otherworldly music. This set the stage for the next decade of their work, which increasingly saw the pair recede into the shadows while their vocal partners took center stage – sometimes literally in live productions. Their grand arc is instructive for first world musicians today, a blueprint for how to work with the sounds and signifiers of another culture without blind appropriation. Von Oswald and Ernestus understood the debt they owed to their forebears and chose to bring that original inspiration to their vast audience.
• • •
Rod Modell & Michael Mantra – Radio Fore
2003
Rod Modell is often lovingly referred to as God Modell on music geek forums for a reason: his dub techno touch is transcendent, wringing pure aural joy out of any project in which he’s involved. His main music delivery system, Deepchord, has evolved into a true spiritual heir to the Basic Channel sound, but he truly cut his teeth on blissed-out early excursions like this pairing with Mantra, a man who spent his life dedicated to creating literal healing music. The California musician crafted sounds specifically designed to induce a meditative state, synchronizing brain wave frequencies, and release endorphins. While I can’t confirm if this is backed by science, the feeling is completely there. More than any other album possible under the dub techno umbrella, Radio Fore brings the listener peace of mind and body, a drifting, transportive state of being for its hour-long runtime. Some music evokes the shores of calm seas, placid starry skies, and a sense of oneness with creation; this album actually puts you there.
Even better, it comes with a lightly sci-fi twist. Here is what’s written in the liner notes: Radio Fore is a psychoacoustic journey into a deep swirling pool of 40Hz tones and binaural beats. The two extended length atmospheric soundscapes explore the mysterious sonic phenomenon that has been documented at hundreds of UFO sightings. Track one takes you for an overnight stay in North, North-West Puerto Rico, at the Arecibo Observatory. And track two takes you to the sandy shores of Gulf-Breeze Florida in the middle of the night, two places of highly active UFO activity.
While at first glance it may defy genre expectations completely, this pair of giant tunes, especially the second one, embody the soul of dub techno as completely as anything else here. Reviewed here.
• • •
Convextion – Convextion
2006
Convextion, aka American techno wizard Gerard Hanson, made his name with a series of 12″ vinyl releases right along with the original titans of the dub techno genre, from the mid-1990s on through the early days of the new millennium. And then he kind of disappeared for a while, apparently holing up in solitude to craft his self-titled full length debut. It was worth the full-decade wait, because Convextion is one of the premier documents of the genre, an astounding reimagining of everything pure and beloved about dub techno from the inside out. The tracks here together compose, to my ears, one of the core documents of the sound, yet somehow never directly resemble any specific early record – they could have been made by no one else. He’s gone on to release a trickle of music over the following decade, including a seriously Detroit leaning sophomore album in 2016, but this will likely always be his magnum opus. Wiggling around the crisp and clean edges of the techno galaxy, it’s a coolly psychedelic ride and a definitive album-listening experience that expands the genre by sheer skill rather than introducing novel ingredients.
Optimistic Underground 
Thank you for this, sir. I’m going to get lost in some of these I’ve never heard of before. Just now experiencing the Micronism album, and it’s seriously RICH. Do you keep an active profile on any of the streaming platforms?
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I’m so glad that you’re finding new music to love here! That Micronism is an especially rare gem, I’m so thankful it was reissued. And yes – I use spotify a lot! I’m not sure how to link it here though – or you could find me by search?
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Thanks Dave! I think it’s pretty tough to find the right profiles on Spotify. I imagine your profile is probably under your real name (David James?), so probably pretty hard to search. I think you can copy your profile link though. Here’s mine: https://open.spotify.com/user/123432839?si=N9GsIPMnSEKlyUtDCynvfQ
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I’ll add you once I get on my computer! It’s so fun stalking other people’s listening.
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Okay, so maybe spotify is changed or I’m just being a dummy – I can’t see anywhere I can follow you on there! I know that it’s possible to follow non-facebook-friends so I’ll just reply with my profile link here and hopefully you can sort it out? I’d love to be able to link it on my site somewhere too. https://open.spotify.com/user/1224331589?si=XDWb6hGQR6ybLwGByEDEUw
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I’m a Spotify numbskull too. It might due to the fact that we’re not FB friends, and I connect to Spotify via FB. I just sent you a friend request, so if you don’t mind friending a total stranger, we can see if I’m right!
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Sure thing, I’ll accept once I’m on there today!
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Sorry but u need to check out lucidflow label they are really on the ball with dub techno and the production is on another level
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Great stuff Dave, this will have me immersed for some time; as even though I’ve heard of a good few of these, I have yet gotten around to checking them out. Of course, there’s stuff here that is totally new to me, so extra thanks for that.
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You’re very welcome, so glad you’re finding some good stuff to explore! I really wanted to showcase the full breadth of the genre, so I hope you hear something to enjoy in the weirder edges.
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I have to be honest I’m surprised that echospace presents the coldest season isn’t on your list as that is in my opinion a better album than liumin. Also echospace live in Detroit which is truly fantastic.
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That Live in Detroit album is phenomenal! And I absolutely love The Coldest Season, but I had to make a choice between the two and I just love Liumin a little more. Very tough trying to cut this list down to manageable size – I honestly could have added 3 or 4 more Modell albums alone! Thanks for the feedback.
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Great List!!
My fav that are not in the list are Fluxion:Vibrant Forms 2 , not 1. In movies it,s said that second parts are no good, but with vibrant forms 2 it doesn,t happen .Just amazing.
And From Deepchord, I recommend “everything” he made.I discover very late Deepchord works, and i prefer his solo works to the Echospace combo.He takes more risk when working alone.”20 Electrostatic Soundfieds” and “Hash-Bar loops” are probably my favs.
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I love these suggestions! I almost chose Vibrant Forms 2 – either one is perfect I think. As for Deepchord, I totally agree. He’s amazing! I might actually make a Rod Modell list to cover everything he’s made. I LOVE 20 Electrostatic Soundfields. Sommer might be my favorite overall, but his new one Auratones is up there too.
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Fairly new to this genre and really enjoyed the infectiously passionate focus you have and the level of description used to carve each album into an identifiable shape. So fun to read and even more interesting to imagine- thanks for the wordsmithery, new info and links!
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Thank you for the kind words! Sorry for the late reply, I’m just catching up on comments now. Happy that I was able to help you out with some new music!!
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U need to check out lucid flow label go on you tube and look for Nadja lind burning Man some proper dub techno on there plus everything is lucid flow big ass production
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As a list targeted at uninitiated listeners it’s very good and you obviously emphasize variety, which I appreciate, especially for a genre that can get very samey once you’ve heard enough. Even if some of the picks such as the DJ Python seem a little far-fetched (nothing against their quality, on the contrary, more their inclusion on a dub techno list). I admire your eloquent writing that conveys listening as a sensorial experience rather than a mere description of technical elements. To me echospace are the true heirs of Basic Channel/Chain Reaction, the ones who were able to incorporate their integral influence and take the sound to unimaginable new heights. You were content with including Liumin which is probably the epitome but Intrusion’s The Seduction Of Silence, Variant’s The Setting Sun, cv313’s Live and Dimensional Space are omissions that stand out. But the list is yours! (maybe a top50 in the future lol)
Also some lesser known albums worth digging. Let me know your thoughts if you listened to them already.
Kit Clayton – Nek Sanalet
Bluetrain – Version Blue
Exos – My Home Is Sonic
Sensual Physics – Offene Schleifen
Octex – Idei Lahesna
Sustainer – Cuántico
154 – Strike
Evan Marc + Steve Hillage – Dreamtime Submersible
Quantec – Unusual Signals
Arc Of Doves – Mille Plateaux
Inward Content – Inward Content
J.S.Zeiter – JSCD-01
Grad_U – Surface Variations
Unknown Artist – Knowone Black Box One
Purl – Stillpoint
Wanderwelle – Lost In A Sea Of Trees
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Thank you for the great feedback! I agree 100% that Deepchord and all the related projects are the true heirs of dub techno. I wanted to limit how many projects I included from a single artist and there were already 3 with Rod Modell, so unfortunately I had to leave a lot of great stuff off the list. I think we must have very similar tastes, because Seduction of Silence and especially cv313’s Dimensional Space are absolute favorites of mine too. I considered making the list longer, but now I’m thinking I might just do a Rod Modell overview post, detailing all of his connected works. For now though, I think I’ll add mention beneath Liumin of a handful of other must-hear releases of his; I’ve been thinking about doing this since I published, to be honest. It was tough leaving anything out!
As for your suggestions – I haven’t heard several of these, so I’m excited to check them out! I’m always on the lookout for new stuff. Thanks again!
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Thanks for this amazingly detailed journey into dub techno! I’ve only recently discovered the genre and have been chipping away at this list. You’ve created quite the guide; a perfect introduction for me!
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This just made my day! Exactly why I write about music like this. Thank you for letting me know. I hope you keep discovering greatness – and let me know if you want any further suggestions! I’m in the process of rolling out an updated list with more “you should also check out…” type mentions beneath some of the big important albums. So much more to explore, always.
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Hello!
What a great list! Thank you for the thorough work ! :)
I guess we have similar tastes for dub techno too, the rare albums i didn’t know are instant favorites…
And you made me nostalgic for some i didn’t hear for quite too long.
I would love to read more genre list like that from you in the future, if you have the time :).
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Thank you for the kind words! So glad to know you’ve discovered some new favorites – that’s why I write. I’m definitely planning on making some more big genre lists like this, probably a couple more this year in fact. I’m working on a house right now but as soon as I’m done I’ll be back to writing!
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Enjoyable writing David. I’m revisiting all my old 12″ dub techno records. Lots of artists you mentioned are in the crates. I’m in my fifties now and most house and electronic genres bore me these days (maybe a hint of nostalgia at best, I was pretty deep into the scene more years ago than I care to remember). Not so with dub techno, I played all day during the hot summer, it’s still fresh and remains interesting. DubT stands the test of time beautifully afaic.
On your list I missed Coldest Season and Hashbar remnants and also the releases on Styrax Leaves, they have some brilliant stuff. No longer available on vinyl, most is on YT.
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I completely agree, absolutely timeless! Also, I definitely feel you on the Coldest Season and Hashbar Remnants. Rod Modell deserves a dozen mentions when it comes to dub techno – and I’m actually thinking about doing a feature on him and his many aliases and releases. I actually thought to expand this list a bit by mentioning other, similar releases to the ones mentioned, but when it came to Modell I realized I could make a whole list!
Also, I’m not sure I’m familiar with Styrax Leaves (or aware of it, if I am) so I’ll definitely search for anything I can find. You clearly know your stuff so I’m curious! Thanks for sharing, and thank you for the kind words!
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Yes this was fantastic but its cost me a fortune ,! Would love to see more lists
Everything ive bought from it has been exceptional
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Excellent list David, so many memories of early dub techno sound! I know its a recent release from 2018 but you must absolutely listen to Dub Surgeon – The Lost Future LP. I think it would make your list and it pretty much encompasses everything that is so great about contemporary dub techno. Its an obscure release from Jay Haze (engineered by Villalobos?) and issued on a UAE-based label called Ark to Ashes. Keep it up!
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Thank you so much for the recommendation! I hadn’t heard about this one at all, so I’l be listening asap. It’s always great to run into a fellow lover of the genre!
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Great job making this! In my opinion you missed a few and some records i may not see as dub techno but this is YOUR list and it is filled with great records! :D From the Echospace label i would have added Intrusion’s excellent album The Seduction of Silence. Keep it up!
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Thanks for the insight !
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Jesus christ, this list made me hate dub and the people that listen to it. I bet like 90% of these are from people you know and shill for because the quality of sound or musical merit sure as hell aint the thing why these songs are on the list. Fucking atrocious, maybe try broadening and moving forward with your music taste, staying still in some demo phase is a sing of getting stuck in childhood.
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I feel sorry for you. It’s got to be sad to have such tremendously limited knowledge of a genre yet be actively hostile toward the idea of learning more. If anything looks like a sign of being stuck in childhood, it’s leaving whiney, myopic comments like this.
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Nice list. Appreciate it. Voices from the Lake reigns supreme in my world.
Recommendations:
Toki Fuko – Spring Ray (Silent Season).
Alex Under – La Máquina de Bolas (Soma)
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Thank you! 100% agreed on VFTL. I haven’t heard either of those albums, so thanks for the recommendations as well!
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Oh gawd. Sorry for the redundant reply, but I’m going to have to underscore these suggestions. With the taste for patience, subtlety and depth your list shows, I was almost certain these were old news to you. You know that feeling when you hear something so good that just assume everyone knows about it? Enjoy and keep digging! Thanks again.
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No apologies necessary! I love having a recommendation so emphasized. It means something! Forgive my late reply, WordPress was broken last time I tried.
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Good list, even though a bit weaker towards the end.
Some of the notable omissions include Marko Fuerstenberg, legendary long-time resident DJ in Berlin’s Panorama Bar (in the Berghain). Check out his “Darkaudio Podcast” on Soundcloud, a live set – absolutely mind-blowing. Dub Techno doesn’t get any better than that.
Also, Luke Hess from Detroit should be on the list. His “Light in the Dark” release would be a good start. I’ll never forget the DJ set with Moritz von Oswald which I was privileged to witness.
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Thanks for the suggestions! I love Marko and almost had him on here. Haven’t heard that Hess album though.
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Thanks for your work! I´m always happy to read and hear something about dubtechno – in its best moments it shows the esthetic in monotonie and fills it with an evolving sound organism that lets you dive deeper and deeper. Quadrant dub is for sure the most iconic dubtechno track. I still need dubtechno for my mental health and love it since Basic channel. Just one listening tip to start the new year: Iori – magnetic
and my favourite mix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beJsidxDmtk&t=17s
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thanks for the tips and for the kind words!
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Thus list was so informative and has opened me up to months of my favorite kinds of sound.
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So glad to hear that!!
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Thank you.
Scarcely have I penned those two words with such depth of sincerity. Biokinetics and Las Vegas had me up half the night in a very cool daze.
Are you into ambient music? Would love to see you do a list ranking the great albums of Tim Hecker, Biosphere, Louigi Verona, Loscil, Arovane, and the like.
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