BBH: Pelon, No Stunts

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[Chain Reaction]


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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.

littlewhiteearbuds  on October 28, 2009 at 10:15 AM

Such a great, great record.

Paul  on October 28, 2009 at 10:39 AM

Is this re released or what? A true gem in techno!

harpomarx42  on October 28, 2009 at 10:39 AM

Future Jamaican vibes…

littlewhiteearbuds  on October 28, 2009 at 10:52 AM

The purpose of Big Black Headphones columns is to shine a light on forgotten gems from years past. Click the Big Black Headphones tag to see other columns like it.

Blaktony  on October 28, 2009 at 11:14 PM

Essentially beautiful, simplistic & another reminder of why we listen to the future.

kuri  on October 29, 2009 at 11:48 AM

classic. i really should have picked this CR release up by now. shame on me.

Bootsy Colin  on October 30, 2009 at 9:06 AM

nice one Per.

peder  on November 10, 2010 at 11:54 AM

reissue forthcoming on running back!

http://clone.nl/item19053.html

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