32 Best Dub Techno Albums Ever Made

/ David James

Here it is, the Optimistic Underground list of the best dub techno albums ever made. Recently I realized there were no definitive lists or guides for ushering new fans into the genre I love most. The few I found were anemic, narrow, and boring; nobody was doing dub techno justice. So here I am, trying to do just that.

The magic of this genre is that its best and brightest examples are not only impressive musical monuments; they’re easy to love and loop and listen forever. This isn’t an academic compilation based on importance or history; it comes from a deep affection for a living, breathing sound.

Dub techno was born with such a defined aesthetic that many early examples sounded like they were from the same artists. Some of them actually were. In fact, you’ll see a few artists represented under different names on this very list. It’s not for a lack of options out there; techno artists tend to switch up identities as soon as they find a new direction in sound. So on a sensory level, for all intents and purposes, they really are distinct musicians. Basic Channel is not 3MB is not Maurizio is not Rhythm & Sound is not Moritz Von Oswald Trio is not Borderland… you get  the picture.

You may notice that this list holds many compilations standing in as albums. In a genre so deeply associated with the 12″ single format, many early dub techno artists became known to the wider world via compilation CDs. This is where the hermetic genre feel becomes an advantage: these compilations often evoke the feel and structure of planned album releases. They’re as cohesive as anything recorded in the album format and undeniable highlights for the genre.

Some of the biggest fans of dub techno are the ones who want to keep it pure, holding a very narrow range of sound as the platonic ideal, accepting little variation and dismissing anything that comes later. They hold up the few original masterpieces as paragons of the sound and dismiss anyone who came along in the following decades. These folks come at music with a prescriptivist attitude, battling for how they think music should be, rather than appreciating how it is. I believe they’re wrong.

When it comes to music, just like grammar, I’m always a descriptivist. I love when genres splinter into dozens of permutations as they migrate and adapt to their new environments. When it comes to dub techno, I hear masterpieces in every era, from the obvious touchstones of the 1990s on up through last year. This sound comes in more than one shape, a fact made crystal clear as we follow its timeline below. This list is arranged in chronological order so you can follow along from when the genre broke ground through the myriad branches that grew as it matured. Accordingly, the music gets weirder and more varied as time goes on.

For more exploration, try the 32 Best Ambient Albums and Every David Bowie Album Ranked lists or see the Optimistic Underground best of the year collection for a load of gems.

On with the list. These are the best dub techno albums ever made:

• • •

Basic Channel – Quadrant Dub
1994

There can be no denial: Quadrant Dub is simply one of the most transcendent pieces of music ever recorded. From my point of view, it may be the most important dub techno recording of all, the early pinnacle of the genre and a high water mark for artists to reach toward for decades. Created in 1994 by Basic Channel, the German due composed of Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus, this 12″ has done more than stand the test of time; it remains charging onward, carving its own timeline outside of everyday reality. With these two songs, Basic Channel perfected their sound, raising an art form into the realm of religious experience. It is pure rapture spread over thirty seven minutes. The entire experience passes in an instant if you surrender, pure bliss suspended far above tactile reality. If you want it, this can become a kind of on-tap meditation, an elemental recording used to send your mind where it needs to go at the push of a button.

Without Basic Channel, and without this record in particular, dub techno would look very different today, if it existed at all. But don’t let that importance intimidate you; it’s as open and inviting as anything in this genre, a perfect introduction for newcomers and a stratospheric peak for diehard fans to return to always.

Reviewed here.

• • •

Model 500 – Starlight
1995 / 2007

You may have noticed that two years are listed for this single’s release – that’s because the original track, paired with its stunning Moritz Von Oswald remix, dropped right in the opening years of dub techno, but the set was revived, extracted, mutated, and fleshed out over a decade later by Deepchord’s Rod Modell and a host of other genre superstars. The resulting eighty minute release sees the timeless Detroit techno original, by Juan Atkins’ most famous project, extrapolated into an album’s worth of undulating, kaleidoscopic dub techno fireworks. The clean synth lines and understated thump of the original track opens the set, before flowing uninterrupted into its first permutation, a twelve minute monster by Modell himself. The baton gets passed to luminaries like Echospace, Convextion, and Mike Huckaby in a seamless progression mirroring a fully mixed DJ set. This direct connectivity helps the “album” feel like one continuous, multi-headed dub techno behemoth, flowing through every genre permutation possible, highlighting the very essence of what makes it work. Dub techno isn’t merely a sound; it’s an ethos, a philosophy, and a way of bending known music into its own warped world. So a set that mutates one classic song into ten equally ecstatic, distinctly flavored tracks is an essential piece of the genre puzzle. This strange masterpiece could work as a Rosetta stone for the uninitiated, cracking the code of dub techno in a way most single albums from single artists could never achieve.

• • •

Porter Ricks – Biokinetics
1996

Some dub techno artists lean toward the minimalist, ascetic side of the genre’s roots, often to fascinating results. The duo of Porter Ricks, Thomas Köner and Andy Mellwig, took this ideal to its monk-like extreme on the first album length masterpiece of the genre. This album is an absolute dream for audiophiles, thanks to the recording pedigree of its creators. Mellwig came to the project as the mastering and cutting engineer at the legendary Dubplates & Mastering, as well as having collaborated with Kevin Shields, Pete Kember, and Kevin Martin on Experimental Audio Research. Köner was already well known for his visually processed sound design on films and art installations. On Biokinetics, the pair broke all recognizable genre signifiers down to the molecular level, rebuilding dub techno from the ground up with unrivaled focus and scope.

On paper, the music here might be the most minimalist of anything on this list – in less than a minute, every element of these lengthy tracks have been exposed to the listener, but the effect of actually spending six, eight, twelve minutes inside the impeccable sound worlds is beyond description. Each track here is an aquatic wonderland to bask in and explore. The repetition builds intensity as various elements fade up and down in the mix, seemingly growing and changing and racing across the audio spectrum while remaining still to the distant observer. Biokinetics is as much a magnum opus of sound design as it is a landmark of dub techno music, and it hasn’t aged a day in its twenty two years of existence so far.

• • •

Burger/Ink – Las Vegas
1996

Even if this album contained only the track “Twelve Miles High” I’d still put it on a list of the best dub techno albums ever made. It is that huge, that important, and that brilliant of a track. Few single pieces of music convey the majestic possibilities of the genre than this nearly twelve minute locomotive banger, from Jörg Burger and Wolfgang Voigt. Floating at the center of a sprawling, structurally varied techno juggernaut, this track elevates the entire experience into an essential genre touchstone. The variety of moods filling out the rest of the album help its personality really stand out, especially in a genre known for its homogeneous sound. Tracks range from slow motion funk workouts to carefully sculpted IDM grooves that wouldn’t feel out of place on an Autechre album. In this way, Las Vegas philosophically bridges the gap between dub techno’s core identity and the then-burgeoning Warp scene, where experimental artists were turning techno into something completely new. If I were to recommend one first-generation dub techno album to someone more familiar with Aphex Twin or Boards of Canada, this would undoubtedly be it.

• • •

Maurizio – M-Series
1997

M-Series is here because it must be. Along with the astonishing Basic Channel 12″ dubs, there are no tracks more fundamental to the dub techno genre than Moritz Von Oswald’s run of singular bangers under his Maurizio guise. To be fair, this compilation is not something I often return to for repeat listens. It’s right on the knife edge between Important and Loveable, leaning toward the former while, every time I find myself actually listening in full, reaching so hard for the latter. When I think about Maurizio in the abstract, I often consider the historical impact more than the enjoyment of the sounds. But when I actually press play, I’m sent reeling back into my skull, grappling with the full force of what had been unleashed on these tracks over two decades ago. There’s a reason these tracks are all so important: they’re astonishing. At first blush, they might feel like the most simplistic, elemental pieces on this entire list. They feel stripped down even compared to other Chain Reaction releases. But press play, let them wash over you, and see what happens next.

• • •

Vainqueur – Elevations
1997

This collection, more than any early Chain Reaction release, predicted the weird, vaporous, sometimes noisy mutation of dub techno that only truly flowered in the past few years. The songs gathered here, from a number of 12″ vinyl-only releases across the mid-nineties, seem to coat the listener like a fine mist, slowly enveloping the entire aural spectrum in delicate sheets of static, echoed vocal slices, and icy synths. The bass throbs like clockwork far beneath, giving momentum and structure to the freewheeling psychedelia twirling above. In many ways, it exemplifies one of the best aspects of the genre, its capacity for accessible exploration – the best artists find ways to use the rigid beat structure as a massive canvas upon which to color their most far-out impressionistic dreams. This is techno’s biggest spiritual connection to jazz: the combination of timeless rhythm and mindfuck soloing, a balance that leads to transcendence.

• • •

Monolake – Hongkong
1997

The first Monolake “album” is actually a roundup of 12″ vinyl highlights from the then-duo’s spectacular early Chain Reaction label run – and like the other artist compilations featured on this list, it functions seamlessly as an album experience. In fact, it might be the first true dub techno opus. There’s a sense of narrative, of place and time, a grand arc to this set that feels intentional, plotted, despite the staggered original releases of its individual tracks. In 1996, Gerhard Behles and Robert Henke attended the International Computer Music Conference in Hong Kong, where they captured field recordings of the city, as well as similar ones in Guangzhou. Inspired by their experience, they pieced together the music here with field recordings from the journey, cementing its sensory structure as a musical biography of a very particular point in history. Yet somehow this very specificity helps Hongkong achieve its overwhelming timelessness. These songs float into focus on the backs of people, traffic, trains, life captured over twenty years ago, bulging with rhythm and reverb, eventually receding back into the rainy city nights from where they thumped. Each piece is an island unto itself, but the set makes for a ringed archipelago that begs for repeat round trips.

The fact that these two men developed the famed Ableton music software afterward tells you all you need to know about the astounding fidelity on display. Behles continues to run Ableton and Henke has continued solo as Monolake through a vast run of albums over the last two decades, both men continuing to influence the genre and the wider music industry to this day. Look further down this list to see the field recording aesthetic taken to the next level with the album Liumin, by Deepchord Presents Echospace.

• • •

Micronism – Inside a Quiet Mind
1998

Inside a Quiet Mind is one of the more stylistically varied albums on this list, often reaching well beyond the accepted dimensions of dub techno. Yet it remains solidly in place because its spirit and tone evoke the meditative state this genre is known for, perhaps even better than some of the big canonized artists. Still, whatever the genre, it’s a near miracle we’re even talking about the album today. This late 90s release was almost lost to the black hole of cultural memory until a surprise vinyl reissue last year; with its arrival, my peers in the music geek world started talking. I can’t remember who mentioned it to me, but I thank them profusely.

This is a true hidden gem from an artist with a unique story. The New Zealand electronic artist, real name Denver McCarthy, told Stuff, “I had crates and crates of DJ records, yet I kept coming back to this one LP of people chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. It was suddenly the only record I wanted to listen to, so I gave all the rest of my records away and started selling my musical equipment. There was no desire to make music anymore. As my ego fell away, I lost the taste for it.” And as he began his journey through the Krishna belief system, he made a new record under a new name to soundtrack this spiritual transition. The sound begins in deep dub techno territory, but swiftly cuts through the most heady aspects of broader techno’s journey from Detroit to Berlin and back. It may not always sound dubby, but it always feels like it.

• • •

1-8  |  9-16  |  17-24  |  25-32

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48 thoughts on “32 Best Dub Techno Albums Ever Made”

  1. 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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  3. 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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  4. 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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  5. 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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      • 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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  6. 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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  7. 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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  8. 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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  9. 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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  10. 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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  13. 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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      • 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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  16. 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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  18. 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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  20. 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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  21. Beautiful list, wow, heaps of wonderful music that I’ve never heard and that has truly broadened my outlook. Aside the classic dub techno albums I’ve especially liked Acronym – June, great stuff. This gradual and deliberate flow reminded me a bit about Frank Bretschneider’s album Curve

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