While the Maurizio, Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound imprints mainly focused on their own work, Ernestus and von Oswald’s Chain Reaction imprint was founded in 1995 to concentrate on a growing stable of like-minded producers. 

Many of them were also connected to the Hard Wax people, such as: Monolake, Fuxion, Various Artists, Vainqueur, Hallucinator, Porter Ricks, Substance, Matrix, Vladislav Delay, Shinichi Atobe and many more. It offered a run of fresh takes on a rapidly growing sound.

“No one from the Chain Reaction crew had a big studio room, and that meant the environments where we produced our music were by no means a professional environment. And therefore Dubplates & Mastering was perhaps the first time you’d hear the track on big speakers. Going to that place and mastering basically meant you put in some raw material and you get something else back which is probably very cool. This was the promise, and I guess in many cases what we managed to do.”

Robert Henke.

• Shinichi Atobe – Ship-Scope [Chain Reaction] (2001)

Shinichi Atobe is the most reclusive of the Chain Reaction milieu. He’s never given an interview and he disappeared for 13 years after releasing the classic Ship-Scope EP in 2001. “The Red Line” established the plaintive dub techno sound that has made Atobe an underground favorite today. Perhaps the prettiest moment in the Chain Reaction catalog, “The Red Line”‘s melancholic piano enmeshes with a gentle, oceanic pulse.

There was a reissue on DDS label ran by Demdike Stare in 2015.

https://www.discogs.com/master/2662-Shinichi-Atobe-Ship-Scope

• Fluxion – Lark / Atlos [Chain Reaction] (1998)

Fluxion is a pseudonym of Konstantinos Soublis (aka K. Soublis), an electronic music producer from Athens, Greece.

https://www.discogs.com/release/25929-Fluxion-Lark-Atlos

• Monolake – Magenta [Chain Reaction] (1996)

Electronic music act based in Berlin, founded in 1995 by Robert Henke and Gerhard Behles. Monolake is now perpetuated by Henke alone while Behles focuses on running music software company Ableton, which they founded in 1999 together with Bernd Roggendorf.

https://www.discogs.com/master/1944-Monolake-Magenta

• Vainqueur – Elevation II [Chain Reaction] (1997)

“Elevation II” is about as close as Rene Löwe came to pure minimalism. The afterimages of techno and dub are present, but Löwe’s real goal is to heighten our awareness of phasing patterns, incrementally shifting timbres and a sense of space. What sounds obtuse on paper makes sense on an intuitive level— “Elevation II” is as accessible as abstract music gets.

https://www.discogs.com/master/2533-Vainqueur-Elevation-II

• Pelon – No Stunts [Chain Reaction] (1996)

Henner Dondorf.

https://www.discogs.com/master/2550-Pelon-No-Stunts

• Hallucinator – Morpheus [Chain Reaction] (2003)

Original techno dub pioneers Hallucinator consisting of Edward George, Anna Piva, and Trevor Mathison was formed in London in 1996 and recorded for Berlin’s Chain Reaction label. George and Mathison were members of the Black Audio Film Collective.

The last record of the CR family!

https://www.discogs.com/release/202434-Hallucinator-Morpheus

• Vainqueur – Elevation I [Chain Reaction] (1996)

When I did the first “Elevation” 12-inch in May ’95, I had some normal drum sounds from an old sampling drum machine, a Sequential Studio 440, and then I realized the sequence is the thing of the track. Forget all drums. That was really important for me, because I never did before such an ambient track. 

The first “Elevation” was very emotional. I just did it in three hours. I got completely carried away. I started with some drum patterns, played some sounds and then freaked out because the sound was really powerful, without any other percussive things, just the sound. Afterwards I realized more and more that is what I really like, you know, to just let the sounds run. Words by René Löwe (Vainqueur).

https://www.discogs.com/master/2509-Vainqueur-Elevation

• Erosion – 1 / 2 / 3 [Chain Reaction] (1997)

Working as T++ in the late 2000s, Torsten Prüfrock fused Chain Reaction’s sensibility with UK rhythmic swerve, releasing a slew of 12-inches that remain unmatched to this day. He gets the maximum from dub techno’s spartan emotional palette, inhabiting a grey area where warm and fuzzy contentment and ice cold sadness are one and the same.

https://www.discogs.com/master/2574-Erosion-1-2-3

• Vainqueur – Solanus [Chain Reaction] (1996)

Solo project of René Löwe.

https://www.discogs.com/master/2527-Vainqueur-Solanus

Bonus tracks

• Monolake – Hongkong [Chain Reaction] (1997)

Crafted back when Monolake was comprised of Ableton founder Gerhard Behles and Robert Henke, ‘Occam’ is a stunning early example of why the duo was so influential not only within the genre but in the wider world of electronic music.

Their attention to detail is mesmerizing, and while their peers may have accentuated the dubwise lo-fi qualities of the sound, Henke and Behles instead focused on unparalleled rhythmic precision and masterfully-engineered soundscapes that are still making waves today.

Occam track was released on the DIN label and later on CR.

https://www.discogs.com/master/2289-Monolake-Hongkong

• Porter Ricks – Biokinetics [Chain Reaction] (1996)

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.

https://www.discogs.com/master/399653-Porter-Ricks-Biokinetics

• Various Artists – Decay Product [Chain Reaction] (1997)

Written under the ridiculously low-key alias of Various Artists, he gets the maximum from dub techno’s spartan emotional palette, inhabiting a grey area where warm and fuzzy contentment and ice cold sadness are one and the same.

https://www.discogs.com/master/395518-Various-Artists-Decay-Product

• Vladislav Delay – Multila [Chain Reaction] (2000)

Multila was the third album by Finnish producer Sasu Ripatti under the moniker Vladislav Delay. It compiles the “Huone” and “Ranta” 12″EPs Ripatti released on Basic Channel’s Chain Reaction label in 1999 and 2000. The album features six hauntingly murky dub ambient tracks and the impressive 22-minute techno odyssey “Huone.”

https://www.discogs.com/release/705-Vladislav-Delay-Multila

• Matrix – Various Films [Chain Reaction] (1997)

釣哲生 (Tetsuo Tsuri)

https://www.discogs.com/release/708-Matrix-Various-Films

PS: Information obtained from various websites with my personal touch.

Chain Reaction 4e!

http://www.basicchannel.com/

With love

Gerardo