Deepchord

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the fellows in Berlin's <a href="spotify:artist:5e5DeHuHjgcj0DbdrdYKMo">Rhythm & Sound</a> camp will have no problem endorsing Detroit-based Deepchord as their dub-techno heir apparent. Already an established ambient producer, <a href="spotify:artist:6ZX4eVTPQBJ7q0cIShOmKD">Rod Modell</a> partnered with Mike Schommer, quietly releasing their first 12" together in the late '90s. Like <a href="spotify:artist:5e5DeHuHjgcj0DbdrdYKMo">Rhythm & Sound</a>, Deepchord based their compositions around minimal arrangements: repetitive rhythms inspired by dub, faint traces of white noise, and warm synth stabs. The group retained a loyal cult following, releasing several more singles in the early 2000s as well as a limited-run CD version of their first six releases (originally pressed up in extremely limited quantities). The duo's production went from prolific to a screeching halt around 2002, making a remarkable and rare live performance at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival and releasing singles in a scarce fashion (the group's 2006 single was only pressed in 100 copies). A retrospective of the group's work, Vibrasound, was issued under <a href="spotify:artist:6ZX4eVTPQBJ7q0cIShOmKD">Modell</a>'s name and released on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Silentes%22">Silentes</a> label in 2005. Later that year, <a href="spotify:artist:6ZX4eVTPQBJ7q0cIShOmKD">Modell</a> teamed with Kevin Hanton to release Illuminati Audio Science and used a generous portion of the group's output, looped and sliced into small segments (much like <a href="spotify:artist:3AhwIUus3pIaA3CvYBEtpy">Richie Hawtin</a>'s DE9 experiments), for a continuous 70-minute mix CD.

In 2007, <a href="spotify:artist:6ZX4eVTPQBJ7q0cIShOmKD">Modell</a> teamed with Stephen Hitchell, aka <a href="spotify:artist:0Vg7WNQBVprdJleEWYmSJA">Soultek</a>, for what would go on to be one of his most commercially successful projects, <a href="spotify:artist:1FJlepTxHmPA5QVEwoFplL">Echospace</a> (also the name of a new label he started at the same time). Its debut album, The Coldest Season, was released on cult British label <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Modern+Love%22">Modern Love</a> and featured one of the most deconstructed interpretations of the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Basic+Channel%22">Basic Channel</a> sound ever released, its dubby, decayed textures swathed in shrouds of tape hiss. The 2010 follow-up Liumin (a Chinese personal name) was a greater success still, even as it played up this "destroyed" sound yet more, turning hundreds of hours of field recordings made in China into an unrecognizable murk.

In 2011, <a href="spotify:artist:6ZX4eVTPQBJ7q0cIShOmKD">Modell</a>, now piloting Deepchord solo, signed to legendary Glasgow label <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Soma%22">Soma</a>, which issued what was actually the first ever "proper" Deepchord album, Hash-Bar Loops. A period of intense creativity followed and 2012 saw the release both of another <a href="spotify:artist:1FJlepTxHmPA5QVEwoFplL">Echospace</a> album, Silent World -- the soundtrack to an experimental film produced by <a href="spotify:artist:6ZX4eVTPQBJ7q0cIShOmKD">Modell</a> himself -- and the Deepchord follow-up Sommer. In 2013, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Soma%22">Soma</a> released Deepchord's full-length 20 Electrostatic Soundfields, and <a href="spotify:artist:6ZX4eVTPQBJ7q0cIShOmKD">Modell</a>'s <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Echospace+%5BDetroit%5D%22">Echospace [Detroit]</a> label launched a series of archival compilations collecting tracks from Deepchord's early-2000s 12" releases. The following year, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Subwax%22">Subwax</a> released an album of Deepchord's "redesigns" of <a href="spotify:artist:2r01Y1iNjVr8W88RuseQLf">Yagya</a>'s 2006 full-length Will I Dream During the Process?, and British label Astral Industries released Deepchord's limited double-LP Lanterns. Deepchord continued releasing 12" EPs on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Soma%22">Soma</a>, however, and the label issued one of <a href="spotify:artist:6ZX4eVTPQBJ7q0cIShOmKD">Modell</a>'s grandest statements yet, the lengthy double CD Ultraviolet Music, in 2015. Following 2017's Live in Detroit [Ghost in the Sound], a recording of a Deepchord set at an official afterparty for Detroit's annual Movement festival, the project returned to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Soma%22">Soma</a> with the full-length Auratones. ~ Rob Theakston & John D. Buchanan, Rovi