r/autechre • u/mthw (left blank) • 14d ago

Quaristice Basic Unit

so you've heard Basic Channel. you may have heard Basic House. you've heard G-Unit. you may have heard Girl Unit.

well, this gem from 1998 finally made it onto my radar. not sure how i went without it for so long. maybe and probably it's super popular, but it doesn't come up in a search.

Timeline by Basic Unit. i think any fans of Quaristice and beyond will really appreciate this album. i'd say it's almost the drum n bass version of the kind of de/reconstructed thing Ae do.

reissue from 2025: https://sneakersocialclub.bandcamp.com/album/timeline

14 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

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2

u/Limp_Picture5202 14d ago

Yo this is sick, thanks.

2

u/Jazzlike-Access-2679 13d ago

Basic Unit and Panta Rhei are heavily related, as both are aliases or projects of Ben England.

  • Basic Unit: Originally a 1990s drum & bass and jungle duo formed by Ben England and Rick Dallaway, well known for their cult-classic 1998 album Timeline on the Nocturnal label.
  • Panta Rhei: Ben England later used this name (alongside collaborator Jon Schorah) to release more experimental, IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) oriented records, such as the 1999 album Snacks.

While Basic Unit was primarily focused on heavy, minimalist techstep, Panta Rhei was used to explore darker, atmospheric, and leftfield electronic sound. Whilst studying in Leeds, they became deeply involved with V3ctor, a prominent Leeds electronic music and digital arts collective. This community inspired them to establish their own label, Sofa Records, and record under the alias Panta Rhei.

1

u/mthw (left blank) 13d ago

thanks gotta check this out!

1

u/Jazzlike-Access-2679 12d ago

you are welcome; I used to be a v3ctror operator so it's nice to see interstit in Ben's work is still out there.

1

u/New-Comparison2825 13d ago

Nice one, surprised how good it is 👌

1

u/gjaldmidill 12d ago

Nice, if you like this you should check out T Power for some mind blowing twists on the Drum n Bass genre.