Characteristics and history[edit]

In the early 1990s, producers Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus formed Basic Channel, a duo credited for defining dub techno.^[1][2] In addition to making the presence of minimalism commonplace in the techno scene, they also incorporated delay effects that were recurrent in dub music.^[3] They then formed the label Chain Reaction; while still releasing the same type of dub-infused techno that Basic Channel created, such as the track "Cyan I" by Monolake, the label also distributed techno without dub elements, such as Continuous Mode's "Direct Out / Direct Drive".^[3] Regardless, what Thump writer Josh Baines described as a "thawing of ice as a sonic aesthetic" that was present in Basic Channel's works before Chain Reaction still remained in all recordings issued under the label.^[3]


Another label, Rhythm & Sound, was started by Oswald and Ernestus, and focused strictly on dub reggae and dub techno unlike Chain Reaction. The works of Rhythm & Sound featured representations of the sound system culture of Jamaica, the country where dub was formed, as well as authentic elements of the roots of dub.^[3] According to Baines, this type of dub techno was "the kind of smoked out dub that's an approximate aural recreation of the effect that incredibly potent mairjuana [sic] has on the brain" and "a haunting, haunted, tripped out site of memorial exploration" where "Everything sounds half-remembered, half-there, half-real."^[3]


The "clicks and cuts movement" in the 1990s formed by Mille Plateaux, is labeled by Baines as also characterizing dub techno's sound; the label's releases focused on making the same type of dub techno that Basic Channel and their imprints recorded and issued, only much more melodic.^[3] The exposure of dub techno was then brought over to the United States by Rod Modell with his project Deepchord.^[3]