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
Two Sisters cover

Two Sisters

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Maar cover

Maar

Miryam Solomon, Rosie Turton
blueblue cover

blueblue

Sam Gendel
Pinch & Shackleton cover

Pinch & Shackleton

Pinch, Shackleton
Prati Bagnati del Monte Analogo cover

Prati Bagnati del Monte Analogo

Francesco Messina, Raul Lovisoni
The Revenant [Original Soundtrack] cover

The Revenant [Original Soundtrack]

Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto, Bryce Dessner
Haunted Dancehall cover

Haunted Dancehall

The Sabres of Paradise
Aquariusssssss cover

Aquariusssssss

Carlos Niño & Friends