Released

Basic Channel was a label, and a duo, and an entire way of looking at music. Initially very much not visible, Mortiz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus made the music behind the various aliases here. It stayed this way for years, actually. What they achieved was one of the biggest flips in electronic music history. They made techno and dub the same thing, and made electronic sounds feel completely organic. Not the only and not the first, but these records remade the frame and the game, both. They continued to work under the alias Rhythm & Sound, and ultimately their own given names. These are absolute classics unlike anything before or after, and the language to describe them will likely never change: muffled, aquatic, dirty, degraded, whooshy, sandwormy.

Sasha Frere-Jones

Suggestions
Kira Kira cover

Kira Kira

The Irresistible Force
Instrumentals 2015 cover

Instrumentals 2015

Flying Saucer Attack
Soundboy Punishments cover

Soundboy Punishments

Appleblim, Ricardo Villalobos, Gatekeeper, Shackleton
One on One cover

One on One

Mira Calix
Cendre cover

Cendre

Ryuichi Sakamoto, Fennesz
Live 1974 cover

Live 1974

Harmonia
Geogaddi cover

Geogaddi

Boards of Canada
Lux cover

Lux

Brian Eno