[Chain Reaction]

When Basic Channel ceased its transmissions and gave way to Chain Reaction, the label’s fans were introduced to further faceless techno by a new wave of producers. While Mark Ernestus and Moritz von Oswald used the former label as a breeding ground for their own Basic Channel tracks, Chain Reaction was set up for other artists as the pair digressed towards their own new projects. Chain Reaction threw up a fresh wave of unknown dub techno producers, and while some of those went on to become rather prolific, one of the best releases on the label marked the only release for its author. Henner Dondorf, better known as Pelon has since gone on to master a number of releases for Stephan Mathieu, but “No Stunts” on Chain Reaction is his only contribution to the canon of dub techno we have so far.

The title sums up the track succinctly with Pelon wringing out a maximum amount of groove from little more than some 909 drums, a bass line and a single synth sound tweaked and heaped with effects. The repetitious synth chords ebb and flow with intensity and have a call and response feel to them, the response echoing back and drifting on and on well after many more notes have sounded. The bass line is simple and synonymous with characteristic dub/Basic Channel style techno — a simple off beat pulse that drives the momentum, letting the sonic textures flesh out the spaces left by the minimalist approach to percussion. I suspect the two parts of the record exist only because there wasn’t enough space to fit the whole track on one side without severely compromising the sound quality. There is little distinction between the two sides, for “Part Two” is ostensibly a direct follow on from “Part One,” as evidenced by the fade out and fade in. This however, is not a problem as “No Stunts” is a track you could happily listen to one hundred parts of. It is hard, in fact, to do any justice whatsoever to the beauty of a classic like this with mere words. Best thing to do is hit play on the widget and see for yourself.