Porter Ricks - "Port of Transition" ... Compiled Song released in 1996. Compilation released in 1998. Techno / Dub Techno
From critic John Bush:
Named for a character on the '60s TV show Flipper, Porter Ricks specialize in subaquatic dub techno, providing the closest touchstone to the static hum and fuzzy beatwork of their quasi labelmates Basic Channel. A collaboration between ambient maestro Thomas Köner and beatmeister Andy Mellwig, the duo debuted with three 12" releases on the Basic Channel sublabel Chain Reaction during 1995-1996. Filtering out any of the harder effects from Detroit techno and Plastikman (Richie Hawtin) material with what sounded like an affinity for undersea sonar frequencies and wind-tunnel ambience, the singles became quite popular with the growing experimental techno scene of the mid-'90s (and even influenced Plastikman in return).
So John Bush likes to refer to German duo Porter Ricks' brand of techno as subaquatic, but since no human has ever actually managed to plumb themselves deeper than any of earth's own ocean floors, I think a more tangible descriptive term for this type of techno—dub or otherwise—is simply basement techno. You take the stairs, escalator, or elevator down to a dingy and dark basement kinda place with cracked concrete floors and leaky pipes and this is the kind of stuff that feels quintessential for that type of setting. "Port of Transition" is the first track off the first 12-inch that Porter Ricks ever released and it is quite an unfurling doozy, making it easily apparent how this duo ended up becoming pretty sudden techno-game-changers themselves.
Seems with Thomas Köner's specialty as an ambient and noise merchant and Andy Mellwig's as a beat constructor, they both tapped into and combined their own skillsets here to yield something that's breathtakingly sublime as it progressively becomes more and more complex. Starting out as an enticing piece of noise-filled techno with a simple and pulsating, Detroit lo-fi backbeat, "Port of Transition" does what its title says it does, which is seamlessly transition between differently crafted noisescapes, as an acid-electro-fuzzy bassline makes its way in, and by the time we've reached the second half, we've added a new set of floating and dubbed-out tribal drums that've found a way to enchantingly bubble and pop too.
Pretty inimitable dance music, especially for 1996, when a lot of this dark and noisy dub techno stuff from the Basic Channel / Chain Reaction camp in Germany was only starting to gain its sea legs. Don't like noise very much as a standalone genre, but set those peeks into vast, unsettling unknowns to some kind of beat, and I could be completely swayed—prime example of it right here 🙌.
