Porter Ricks - Biokinetics [Mille Plateaux]

And here it is. The n-th incarnation of the formerly famed Mille Plateaux label, a 90s and early 2000s staple in Electronica, Clicks'n'Cuts and all things highly advanced, avantgarde and intellectual in electronic music which then somewhat disappeared after the bankruptcy of their main distributor in the mid-noughties and only was heard of in the context of several ownership disputes and other legal issues going on between their real and alleged founders also related to the short-lived successor Mille Plateaux Media. But now it seems like the label is back on track for 2k21, re-releasing Porter Ricks' seminal album "Biokinetics" which originally came out via Basic Channel's Chain Reaction imprint back in 1996. Now, 25 years and a gazillion of DubTechno releases later, the album perceived by Thomas Köner and Andy Mellwig under their conjunctional Port Ricks-guise is still a monolithic genre blueprint, following a sonic narrative that replaces the organic, natural swing of the original DubTechno scheme with cold static and innate darkness as well as a somewhat futuristic, ruff edged mechanical attitude which owes more to the concrete and steel environment of Berlin's original Tresor Club than to the sunnier side of Jamaica, especially when it comes to the twisted, swampy loop business of "Biokinetics 1" or the vantablack minimalism of the subsequent "Biokinetics 2" as well as the grinding, mind-boggling anti-grooves found in "Port Of Nuba" and the brittle, icy atmosphere of "Nautical Zone". Still a statement after all these years.

Album artwork on Instagram!