Soundhack doublehammer12/30/2023 ![]() It might be how far Betke dubbed his techno or how many creases he imprinted onto the Basic Channel blueprint. As much as Pole defined the glitch movement when he first released the monochromatic-trilogy of 1, 2, and 3, this collection of his seminal releases never sounds as dated as you’d expect in 2008. Stefan Betke’s scrapes, pops and crackles refashion the inadvertent effects of technology into purposeful affects of depth. There’s a tendency to talk about Pole’s work as aural illusions. It almost makes you not miss the original’s vinyl crackle. BCD-2 contains so many of Basic Channel’s highlights - the onslaught of “Enforcement,” the prickles of “Octagon,” and the momentum of “Phylyps Track II/III” - that it’s hard not to be simply thankful for the care in transferring this work to CD. It’s a welcome wrinkle to the Basic Channel mythology where “faceless techno bollocks” always seemed to de-emphasize the techno part for the appreciation of Basic Channel’s faceless aesthetic. ![]() Eschewing the dubbed out seascapes found on their debut compilation, BCD-2 cherry-picks Mark Ernestus and Moritz Von Oswald’s full-speed-ahead techno releases. In a year steeped in the resurgence of dub-techno, Basic Channel’s second CD compilation couldn’t have come out at a better time. My favorite variation is the last track on Königsforst. Voigt is never willing to repeat himself, but each track sounds like a compelling variation on the same template. From the raw start of the self-titled through the nerve-wracked finale of Pop, there’s a unity and development between the four records. The ingredients to Gas - the drones, the de-tuned classical music, the gentle tap of a kick - don’t sound like much as ambient building blocks their modesty is easy to get lost in. But remastered and fully realized in a single package, Nah und Fern might be one of the biggest revelations of 2008. And considering their stature, it was difficult to imagine how they could have gotten lost to the wayside (RIP Mille Plateaux). Before Nah und Fern, it bordered between difficult and near impossible to track down all of Voigt’s Gas albums. It was only appropriate that Wolfgang Voigt would eventually start a label, Kompakt, whose intention was to keep every release in print. For our first year-end column, staff writer Nate DeYoung gathers his top five reissues - and uses that word loosely - released in 2008.
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