Scion – Arrange And Process Basic Channel Tracks

This is my desert island disc.
I could listen to this for eternity. It’s perfect.

An unparalleled techno mix that I have listened to countless times since its initial release.

Certainly nothing can touch the original traks, but I appreciate the audacity to take these in hand and build something new. I love this mix; It brings me much joy. Deftly mixing in the more upbeat tunes and the deep subterranean cuts into a delightful soup.

While some tracks come across as more -friendly than the originals (octaedre/octagon), not all of the rough edges are lost. Phyllypstrak is deadly as always.

Scion and BC... cheers for this being part of the musical fabric of the world.

Total showerface journey through time and spaaace.

While this is a fine mix, I do not agree with others’ assertions that this is the best introduction for newbies to the BC catalog. The thing is, this mix lacks the interesting production that made the BC records so mindblowing. Instead, it uses the computer to create something very hard quantized and its mixing and compression to put a modern “spit shine” on what are originally much rougher sounding tracks. All the looseness and atmosphere from the originals is lost here.

I recommend learning the original records first, they remain a flawless artistic expression on their own. Once you know them well, this mix can give an interesting take on that material. For me personally, I listen to BC CD and BC CD2 far more often than I do this, but every now and then this is a nice change up.

Remixing any Basic Channel track is suicidal at best but I have to give it to Peter & René.

This is simply extraordinary & I just love the first part.

When the ambiance kicks in, the hi hats... Its a special age of music, its a special track hands down

MINI discogs REVIEW : this cd is six stars ******

Dare I say it but Phylyps Trak sounds even better at that speed. A supremely excellent mix / reworking, for me it hasn't dated 15 years on from its release.

This is essentially a mix made of various Basic Channel tracks but it is much more than a mix as the tracks have been cut and pasted and remixed over one another to make a completely coherent whole. There are nine ‘parts’ and each part combines two, three, four or five Basic Channel tracks.

The sound, feel and texture of the originals are all still there; the music is still coming at you from the same place. This mix brings you closer to the essential truth of the music, by rearranging them and combining them in this way you can see them as part of something larger that transcends the individual tracks.

The mix begins with some classic Basic Channel – esque dubby sounds, floating and shimmering, reminiscent of leaves blowing in the wind. The beat begins, pulsating and throbbing, with more techno energy than most of the original tracks. The light leaves-blowing sounds continue and for now it is just the bass throb carrying everything along. The hi-hat kicks in after three minutes and it has been so long that you’ve almost forgotten about other percussion elements, making the introduction of a new element at the top of the mix glorious. The snare s a minute or so later and the gentle leaves-blowing synths are still the only melodic element. The restraint and care put in to introducing each new element means that it all still feels like build up, a long pulsating drum roll towards a precipice, a train thundering along on rails up a hill.

Long high ambient notes start to signify the climax of the ascent and part 2 begins by sending us immediately into a tunnel. The beautiful mantra from the Basic Channel track “Q 1.2″ kicks in and the beat is almost completely muffled. This mantra is one of the most beautiful sounds, from probably my favourite Basic Channel track; it’s so simple yet so melancholic and yearning. It merges in and out of the foreground during part 2, and a thumping snare gradually rises to the surface to take us out of the tunnel.

The refrain from “Quadrant – Infinition” brings the mix back into the open again and flows so naturally from Q 1.2 it’s as if they were part of the same track. The mix is more banging now but it still feels like the train is climbing, the Infinition refrain taking us yet higher, to either another tunnel or a precipice.

Things plateau out after two minutes with a breakdown, giving the beat some time to itself. The drop comes soon after with a vocal stab; you normally wouldn’t expect vocal samples in a Basic Channel mix but it works perfectly to restart the Infinition refrain. This is pretty much techno heaven at this moment: striving yearning chords carrying you rushing forwards over the thundering snares. The pressure is released soon after with another breakdown and things move down a notch to a more dubby rhythm.

Part 4 continues with the muted pace, the beat is still relentless but it is in the shadows giving the dubby swathes of synth full play. Part 4 closes out with the drilling rhythm of “Phylyps Track I/II” and the metronomic metallic clang carries into part 5.

I’ll leave you to enjoy the rest of the mix yourself, suffice to say this is surely one of the most accomplished techno mixes you could ever hope to hear. The rhythm is relentless but is handled with such poise that it is never over powering. Elements are introduced so subtly it feels like sleight of hand. Riffs and hooks rise from deep in the mix, slowly to the surface as other elements drift downwards. It is very easy, and desirable, to slip into a hypnotic state as each element is given play. The whole effect is like swirling forwards along a river, as leaves shimmer in the breeze above.

As I said above, the elements from different tracks fit so seamlessly and naturally it feels like they are part of a something larger. This larger something would be the ideal platonic form of Basic Channel’s music, which is hinted at by the individual tracks. This mix by Scion takes us one step closer.

Miss this one on vinyl

Basic Channel is in my view most musical techno act out there. You could loop this entire mix forever and it would be years before you tire of the sound. This is a timeless techno soundtrack. It may very well be the greatest dub techno album of all time.

I agree with the previous reviewer completely, but felt compelled to get into the content of the record a bit more. Basic Channel to me is a label of truly mythical stature. Through a dozen or so 12" they redefined the late 80ties detroit sound and reclaimed it through a distinctly european lense of minimalism. epic tracks more often than not topping 10 minutes, and some even pushing 20, which sound choices so epic and profound, the original 12"'s are a nearly religous experience to behold. however, the challenge then becomes, how to translate that energy into CD format. The initial Basic Channel CD pulled material from the softer, more ambient side of the label, and in it's own right, was a great CD, although the drawback being that many of the songs had to be edited in order to fit a reasonable number of them on the disc.

When this came out, i was extremely excited. the basic premise is that Scion (Vanquier and Substance, respectivly, who both released albums on Basic Channels "sister label" Chain Reaction, which released albums by other people with similar visions as the BC crew) took the BC backcatalouge, and using Abelton Live (a music production software developed by a former member of Monolake, another Chain Reaction allumni) literally mashed together most of the BC tracks into a super condensed, solid, 50 minute mix, often mixing 2-3 tracks into a single "song" often altering the pitch and speed along the way. What you end up with is the best possible representation of the energy of the original tracks on CD.

Basic Channel eventually released a follow up to the original BCCD with one focusing more on the dance orientated stuff, but i would argue that this album is better, due to the inventive mixing of Scion. Of course, nothing beats the original vinyl, which can now be easily aquired either in record or purchased in MP3 format, but this album, which has become increasingly hard to come by stands as an excellent tribute/introduction/experiment for this seminal label.