Up on techno’s Mount Olympus sits Chain Reaction, content in the fact that few techno labels have ever been quite so revered. Where Basic Channel invented and perfected a sound, they drafted a team of like-minded cohorts to expand that sound, and records such as Vladislav Delay’s Multila and Vainqueur’s Elevation have few equals. Unfortunately, some of this stuff remains rather difficult to find (unlike Ernestus and von Oswald’s own work), and the task of reissuing it has been left to other institutions. Enter Type Records, a label that has consistently wandered the outskirts of techno without getting its proverbial feet wet. Their first “proper” techno record comes in the form of a reissue of Biokinetics, the fabled work of Porter Ricks (Thomas Köner and Andy Mellwig) and Chain Reaction’s first CD release. Like pretty much all of the CDs on Chain Reaction, this was mostly a collection of previously released 12″s, but the label and its artists had such a consistent sound that the CDs often flowed like proper albums.
As far as how the album sounds sonically, all the usual touchstones are represented: the steady thump, thump, thump of the kick cutting through leagues of hazy materials, the glacial pace at which those elements evolve, the extended runtimes. Dub techno has always seemed to have a very terrestrial, elemental quality to it, and these tracks reflect that in spades, especially given the explicit nautical references in the titles. “Port Gentil” and “Port of Call” are exemplary pieces of techno regardless of genre, but for those well versed in this scene’s history, the album contains few surprises. The notable exception, and clear highlight of the album, is “Biokinetics 2,” a cavernous, engrossing piece of music that has much more to do with Köner’s trilogy of dark drone works (also reissued by Type) than anything else on the album’s two pieces of wax.
The Nuba “suite” of tracks is the other standout moment, clicking away with mauled rhythms that have seemingly very little respect for the 4/4 kick’s sense of time. Everything here is immaculately produced and results in a deeply satisfying listen, but it’s a little difficult to shake the feeling of déjà vu. Biokinetics is very clearly a landmark piece of music that should be tracked down and purchased without hesitation, but the heads who have long deified this stuff will find there’s not a whole lot new to discover. How exciting (or not) a reissue is tends to come down to one’s familiarity with the scene that it came from, and given that the Basic Channel/Chain Reaction family is a permanent member of techno’s canon, I can imagine lots of Porter Ricks virgins enjoying the hell out of Biokinetics, but not necessarily having their minds blown.
