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
Azure cover

Azure

Sky H1
Unseen Forces cover

Unseen Forces

Justin Walter
Quarantine cover

Quarantine

Laurel Halo
With the Artists cover

With the Artists

Rhythm & Sound
Transport cover

Transport

Borderland, Juan Atkins, Moritz von Oswald
Music For Healing cover

Music For Healing

Richard Norris
Schoon Donker cover

Schoon Donker

Marceau Boré
Autobahn cover

Autobahn

Kraftwerk
Bytes cover

Bytes

Black Dog Productions
Follower cover

Follower

Chris Abrahams