Phylyps Trak EP by Basic Channel, released on Basic Channel records on October 1993
In 1993 Basic Channel rewrote the blueprint for techno with Phylyps Trak.
In doing so they catalysed an infectious new genre purposely designed for the dark, dingy techno bunkers of Berlin.
Dub techno changed everything.
Gone was the lustrous sheen of Detroit futurism, replaced by a punishing soundscape of skull-blasting sub bass and relentless, clattering loops of sheet metal.
The title track is a deeply discombobulating experience, like being waterboarded in quicksilver. It’s a minimal mobius strip of a track, sparse on melody yet fiercely kinetic and constantly mutating. A rising tsunami of sound, folding in like origami on all sides to forever imprison your brain.
The other two tracks are essentially remixes or alternative versions of Phylyps Trak, placing emphasis on different sonic aspects of the original.
Phylyps Bass is slightly more subdued but still heavy on pulverising percussive blasts and bristling with ear-hair tingling low fi crackle, while Axis adds some 909 snares to create a more lopsided take.
Put them all together and you have a thrilling triumvirate of essential dub techno cuts that still resonate (pun intended) 30 years on.
So much techno from that era sounds ridiculously dated by today’s standards, but Phylyps still sounds fresh.
Sure, these tracks are nowhere near as polished as today’s predictable Beatport darlings but then that’s the whole point.
The Phylyps Trak EP is a deep sensory assault, an immersive gritty soundscape in which one can get lost forever. It lit the spark spawned an entire genre and those shockwaves were soon felt worldwide, in London, in Detroit and all the way to Kingston causing 20 storey feedback ripples.
You mightn’t know the name but have a listen and recognition should be instant.
If not, Phylyps should still sound familiar it’s because you’ve heard a thousand imitators.
But none could capture the impact of this groundbreaking release.